Tehsildar’s Ram role: Three decades of cultural heritage

“I do not shout, I do not swear, I do not fight. You can call it the Shri Ram effect,” says Tehsildar Gurdeep Singh Sandhu.

For the past 30 years, with the arrival of Navratri, Sandhu has dressed up in a divine yellow to embody the virtues of ‘Shri Ramchandra’ for the audiences of the Ramleela at Dhilwan.

Strong, muscular, clad in yellow, armed with a bow and adorned with a string of marigolds around his neck and hair, he has played Shri Ram at the Ramleela staged by the Mahaveer Dramatic Club and the Ram Krishna Dramatic Club at Dhilwan for decades.

A tehsildar by profession, the 50-year-old Gurdeep Singh Sandhu holds the dual charge of Tehsildar Shahkot and Nakodar. Hailing from a Jat Sikh family in Dhilwan (Kapurthala), Gurdeep owes his stroke of fortune to the exodus of previous Ram and Laxman characters abroad.

“I started with stage in school, playing a character in a stage adaptation of Harivansh Rai Bachchan’s ‘Athanni Ka Chor’ and thereafter was a regular on stage at our annual functions. Once, when the Laxman of our Ramleela went abroad, I was asked to audition to take his place, which I happily did. There has been no looking back since then. I played Laxman for four-five years, then several years later, the guy who played Ram moved to England with his family. I got a promotion and began to play Ram,” he says.

Gurdeep says his two teenage sons are also among the avid fans who catch up on his Ramleela shows religiously.

Having portrayed Ram for many years, Gurdeep, who has also worked in several religious films, could not appear in the Ramleela this year.

“It was my first gap year. We had a busy month since I had dual charge and the panchayat elections are also due. However, I will return to the Ramleela next year.”