Tying the Knot - BBC3 short film #Sikh

I was surprised to discover this short film on the BBC THREE youtube channel but I'm glad I did. It touches upon a myriad of subjects. It's worth watching, monologue pieces are hit and miss but I feel this one is strong. 

It's great to see the BBC actually create some Sikh related content, hopefully BBC THREE can help nurture the next generation of filmmakers.

This short film has been written by Rena Dipti Annobil and stars Mawaan Rizwan as Ronnie, a man struggling to prepare for his wedding day. Over the course of five minutes it touches on a variety of topics related to the Sikh diaspora.

It's part of a new BBC venture called 'The Break',  between BBC Taster, BBC Writersroom and BBC Drama Production that has seen five original short dramas written by up-and-coming writing talent from across the UK. Each short consists of a standalone, contemporary individual monologue, the others are really inventive and worth checking out too.

BBC schedule programs celebrating WW1 Sikh participation

BBC Commissioning Editor for History & Business, Martin Davidson recently confirmed that the BBC are planning a series of programs to celebrate Sikh participation in the First World War. After being asked what the BBC was doing specifically about Sikh programming Martin responded “I'm talking to two Indian filmmakers who want to do a big film for probably either 2016 or 17, which is going to be taking a whole body of Sikh letters home, written by Indian soldiers who arrive, well first of all in Mesopotamia on the western front. Whose letters and experiences when they get back to India would trigger some of the early days of what would become the independence movement. We will do that, and one of the ideas of that will be the music and the reading of the letters will be done in the original language”. Martin Davidson was speaking during a panel discussion organised by the Sandford St Martin Trust. To read further information about the discussion click here.

After being asked what the BBC was doing specifically about Sikh programming Martin responded “I'm talking to two Indian filmmakers who want to do a big film for probably either 2016 or 17, which is going to be taking a whole body of Sikh letters home, written by Indian soldiers who arrive, well first of all in Mesopotamia on the western front. Whose letters and experiences when they get back to India would trigger some of the early days of what would become the independence movement. We will do that, and one of the ideas of that will be the music and the reading of the letters will be done in the original language”. 
Martin Davidson was speaking during a panel discussion organised by the Sandford St Martin Trust. To read further information about the discussion click here.

Whilst no official announcements have been made, it is positive the BBC are looking at creating such programs.

The involvement of Sikh and Indian soldiers during the great war spanning from 1914 to 1918 is regretfully not common knowledge, despite over a million Indian soldiers participating in the war. It has been a long standing criticism from some of the Sikh community that the heroic efforts of these soldiers is often overlooked despite their bravery and great numbers. Sikhs were involved in both WW1 and WW2. Even today there are still Sikh soldiers part of the British army. You can watch an interview with one British Sikh solder below.

Above you can see the trailer for 'Hola Mahalla: The Forgotten festival'.

To buy the documentary on DVD click here or to watch it online via On-Demand click here.

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