Sikh short movie Kaur to get Hollywood remake
- Published
A short film about a British Sikh girl who wears a turban against her father's wishes is set to be remade as a feature-length movie.
Actor Dr Parvinder Shergill, from Berkshire, said the new version of Kaur would be a "huge Hollywood feature".
Dr Shergill, who also works as a psychiatrist for the NHS, is writing it with Juggy Sohal, who wrote the original short film with her.
Kaur, first released in 2022, will be available on Netflix from 3 May.
Dr Shergill also stars in the film alongside Hollyoaks actor Stephen Uppal and Goodness Gracious Me star Nina Wadia, which she was "still fangirling" about.
She told the BBC's Rena Annobil the bigger-budget remake of the South Asian drama would have a "lot more characters".
"There's going to be so much more opportunity for us brown people," she explained.
"It's going to be amazing - I really want to open up the doors in Hollywood for all of us behind and in front of the camera."
Dr Shergill explained the plot of the movie centres around a "natural conversation that happens in a Sikh household at some point".
She added: "Her father is against her taking this path… it's not an easy path.
"There's a lot of honour and respect with owning your turban, but speaking to a lot of people, my father included, there's been a lot of racism and discrimination, and we can't hide away from that."
Dr Shergill studied philosophy and medicine and embarked on a career in mental health.
But she went to acting school after her shifts to realise her childhood ambition of being in the movies, and later started her own production company.
She said: "Art and psychosis go hand-in-hand. You can't have one without the other. People always say they're so different. They're not though, they're such transferable skills.
"When you're a doctor you are a performer... and in mental health you're studying people, film is watching people. They're so similar, it's just the stakes are different."
She said the message behind Kaur was "female empowerment".
It was about "owning who we are, owning our beauty, and our authenticity - so it really doesn't matter who you are as a woman, you can all relate to it".
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- Published24 February 2023
