Actor Randeep Hooda, whose streaming show ‘Cat’ releases on Friday, has shared that he apologised to Guru Granth Sahib – the central holy religious scripture of Sikhism. The reason behind the same is that the actor couldn’t live upto his promise of not cutting his hair before his ambitious film ‘Battle of Saragarhi’ released.
As of now, the film stands shelved. Moreover, the Akshay Kumar starrer ‘Kesari’ was made on the same subject of the last-stand battle fought before the Tirah Campaign between the British Raj and Afghan tribesmen in 1897.
Randeep shared his gratitude for that film to have brought him to understand Sikhs and Sikhism up close.
Talking about the same, the actor said: “I put in a lot of effort (for the film), I left smoking and when things didn’t turn out the way we expected I felt hurt and bare. Even after bearing the losses I waited for three years for the movie only because I had taken a pledge at the Guru Granth Sahib after visiting the memorial.”
However, the actor had to unwillingly move on as the film was not materialising, “As I had to move ahead in life I visited the Gurudwara to pray, where all I could do was apologise as I had to do my Karma and my karma is being an actor so I had to continue to do it.”
Sharing the reason behind tendering his apology to the holy scripture, he further mentioned: “I apologised to the Guru Granth Sahib for not being able to live up to the promise of not cutting my hair till the movie reaches its conclusion. But if I had gotten stuck, there would have been no Gurnam. This sense of entitlement to give back to the people who wronged you in the same way, is a wrong thought; a negative way of living life.”
He also spoke on the topic of Indian armed forces storming inside the Golden Temple in Amritsar for ‘Operation Blue Star’ on the orders of then Prime Minister of India – Indira Gandhi in 1984 – which eventually led to the assassination of Gandhi by her own bodyguards – Satwant and Beant Singh which spiralled into the anti-Sikh riots of 1984,
Randeep Said. “It was a very unfortunate time. Whatever happened with Harminder Sahib (Golden Temple) was very unfortunate that shouldn’t have happened . Whenever I visit the place it gives me chills to even imagine what must have gone through.”
The ‘Extraction’ star will be seen essaying the role of a Sikh and a police mole who worked during the insurgency of the 80s and returns to espionage to save his brother and infiltrate a narcotics ring in Punjab 2006, in the OTT show ‘Cat’ which is dropping on Netflix on December 9.
“I am very happy that the people of Punjab will be able to see me in a sikh character. A Sikh is being called as a Sikh because in literature a Sikh is a learner and that’s what I am, a learner in life and that’s why I am a Sikh,” he added.
The Netflix original series, produced by Movie Tunnel Productions in association with Jelly Bean Entertainment and Panchali Chakraverty, also stars Suvinder Vicky, Manish Gulati, Hasleen Kaur, Geeta Aggarwal, Daksh Ajit Singh, Sukhwinder Chahal, KP Singh, Kavya Thapar, Danish Sood, and Pramod Pathal.