Bollywood actor and Gurdaspur MP Sunny Deol has announced that he would not contest next Lok Sabha poll and instead give his “service” to the nation as an actor.
“I don’t want to fight any elections as of now, I think my chunaav (election) will be as an actor and I think as an actor I can do desh seva (service to the nation) which I have been doing and I am confident what I can give to the youth, to the country, is being a good actor and bringing out good projects.”
Deol was under fire for absenting himself from his constituency for long and not making himself available to the voters of Gurdaspur, a constituency represented by late actor Vinod Khanna. “What I can’t do, I don’t want to do further and beyond that it is my will,” said the actor, when asked by a news channells if he would say no to the BJP if the party reaches out to him and gives him a ticket again to contest the Lok Sabha elections. “Politics doesn’t suit our family”, he said. Dharmendra too was a reluctant politician who otherwise successfully contested Lok Sabha poll from Bikaner , Rajasthan, in 2004. “It’s not about attendance for me. When I go there I see, there are people sitting here (Lok Sabha) who run the country, people from all parties sitting here, how do these people behave? We tell others don’t behave like this or that, at least we should have the etiquette of how we do and what we do.
When I don’t see those things, I feel I am not like them, so better I go somewhere where I enjoy and see what I want to see,” said Deol. Meanwhile, Deol expressed great happiness over the successful box-office run of his Gadar 2, as he introduced a special screening of the film in London.
Organised by the Indian High Commission in London and its cultural wing, the Nehru Centre, the packed screening at Vue cinema Leicester Square on Monday night brought together diplomats, community leaders as well as artists such as filmmaker Shekhar Kapoor.
The event opened with the beats of the dhol as Deol made a grand entrance before addressing the gathering. “Indians all over the world are celebrating this film, I can’t tell you how beautiful it is. I never expected it to be what it was, what it is right now,” said Deol, who reprised his role of Tara Singh from the 2001 box-office hit “Gadar: Ek Prem Katha” alongside Ameesha Patel as Sakeena.
“I believe that every man wants his wife to be like Sakeena and every woman wants her husband to be like Tara Singh. And, the family, the way they hold on together and fight off everything, that’s the basic USP (unique selling point) of the story,” he said.