Punjabi films can benefit from the rich history of our community: Guru Singh Sahota

Guru Singh Sahota who featured in the Punjabi film Karmi Aapo Apni, calls himself an "accidental lead actor." The film is inspired by a shalok from Japji Sahib
and is about a man’s journey of self-discovery and transformation after he experienced racism abroad. The narrative talks about need for equality of human beings and broaches subjects like racism and casteism in Canada and India. "The film gives a message that humanity will have to make sacrifices to establish harmony, peace love and dignity among communities," says Sahota.
Featuring others like Rana Jung Bahadur, Nitu Pandher, Kateryna Bratchyna, Keeya Khanna, Poonam Sood, and Laara Coombs, the music was given by the likes of Daler Mehndi, Sonu Nigam, Jubin Nautiyal, Dev Negi and Guru Singh Sahota himself.
Originally, Sahota is a song, dialogue and story writer. Ask him how he also took to acting and he says, "Once you have good writing skills you can easily direct or create script in your mind. Karmi Aapo Apni is not a just movie this is a vision for the society & humanity."
Talking about how the Punjabi film industry is faring vis a vis other regional industries, Sahota says, "In my opinion, Punjabi industry is little behind because we have a lack of diversity in our films. We’re not chasing content creation ideas from different regions like south films. We’re not promoting new talent. This is a disaster for Punjabi cinema. We have rich history hidden behind false narrative. Together, we can drive our Punjabi cinema worldwide at bigger levels by contrast with rich Sikh history."