Cricketer Sidhu's debut movie to release in September

Mumbai, Aug 5 (IANS) Cricketer, commentator, MP, comedy show judge and now an actor. Navjot Singh Sidhu will be seen on silver screen as he debuts in a Punjabi movie in September.

Sidhu's debut movie, 'Mera Pind' (My Home), in Punjabi will be releasing Sept 5.

In keeping with his political persona, his role in the movie is that of a do-gooder. He plays a non-resident Indian, who returns to India for good. He tries to uplift the village folks of Punjab, exhorting them to be entrepreneurs in their own homeland rather than aspiring to show off their entrepreneurship abroad.

'Mera Pind' has been directed by noted Bollywood cinematographer Manmohan Singh, who left Mumbai to make movies in his native state, Punjab.

Singh was cinematographer for most of Yash Raj Films productions, including 'Darr', 'Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge', 'Dil To Pagal Hai' and 'Mohabbatein'.

Ever since he left Mumbai in the mid-1990s, he made seven movies in Punjabi.

Apart from being a director-cinematographer, Singh is also a very good singer, but he chose not to make a professional career out of it.

'I being a Punjabi can play the role I portray in `Mere Pind' more emphatically than anyone else,' Sidhu had said in his characteristic style at the launch of the movie in Chandigarh in February this year.

Before he agreed to do 'Mera Pind', Sidhu was offered a role in Akshay Kumar's forthcoming release 'Sing is Kinng' but he turned it down.

'But when Manmohanji offered me a role in `Mera Pind', I could not decline because I found my role to be very close to my heart,' Sidhu told the media at the movie's launch.

A Reliance Big Entertainment production, 'Mera Pind' has Harbhajan Mann and Kim Varma also in the cast and has music by Babloo Kumar.