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Summary of Question:	Kal Ho Na Ho...
Category:	Other
Date Posted:	Monday, 1/26/2004 11:41 AM MST

Just recently I saw the movie "Kal Ho Na Ho" and after watching 3 Karan Johar films, I have come to the conclusion that Karan Johar derives a sadistic pleasure in degrading Sikhs by cracking poor jokes against them in his films.

Kuch Kuch Hota Hai - Showed Johny Lever looking at his watch everytime he interacts with a sikh child.

K3G - Showed a Sikh mindlessly kissing and irritating Shahrukh.

and Kal Ho Na Ho - Showed Preity's granny looking for a sikh man to marry Zinta and when she shows the fotographs to her, Preity remarks that everyone looks the same....some sikh guests also come to see her in their house who upon the arrival of preity foolishly start clapping. Plus he showed some sex-starved sikh women.

I am sure that in all his forthcoming movies, he will take a dig at the Sikhs(his past 3 movies have shown it).

Some may argue that Kal Ho Na Ho takes a dig at Gujjus too my answer to them would be Gujjus have been targetted only in this film by him but Sikhs figure consistently and also we Sikhs have suffered immense humiliation in Indian Films time and again(Except Border, Gadar to name a few exceptions) and when Indian Movie makers have started taking Sikhs seriously, this guy always comes up which shows us in poor taste.

We have been very sportive since decades but there should be a limit to everything. My question would be is there any way to express our displeasure to Karan Johar? we did that after kuch kuch hota hai but media highlighted it so much that it helped the film in return.
Kal Ho Na Ho is a history now, could we some how convince him not to show us in poor taste in his future films?

I am not sure if any of the readers of this forum have observed these things and what their reaction is..

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REPLY
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Sat Sri Akal,
I too have been surprised by some of the depictions and stereotypes about Sikhs and other groups in some Hindi movies. I think there are two ways you can try to approach this problem:
Since many stereotypes are caused by lack of understanding, try to do your part to inform people about Sikhism, whether if it is through your actions or your conversations about it. Show that a Sikh is much more than the stereotypes and labels.
Next, you can try to write to some of the filmi magazines and express your observations and displeasure of these depictions in the movies. This will at least begin to bring some awareness about it to others and that is the beginning of change. You can also try to write to the filmmakers and you should be able to contact them through links on the film websites. I hope this helps.

GJ Kaur