Punjabi actor and social activist Deep Sidhu, who released a video statement on his official Facebook page, stating that he was targeted because he was the only one who was there at Red Fort.
He was accused of fuelling chaos and clashes at the Red Fort on India’s 72nd Republic Day amid the farmers’ tractor rally. He was later arrested by the police. He was even accused of hoisting Nishan Sahib, a flag that was earlier seen as a Khalistan flag at the Red Fort. The cops had announced a Rs 1 lakh reward for leads on Deep Sidhu. Many questions come to our mind: Who is Deep Sidhu? and What does he do?
Deep Sidhu is a Pollywood actor, who started his film career in 2015 with the Ramta Jogi, produced by critically acclaimed actor Dharmendra under his banner Vijayta Films. Deep Sidhu was born in 1984 in Punjab’s Muktsar district. He had studied law and was also a part of the Bar. He practiced as a lawyer. His first placement was with Sahara India Pariwar as a legal advisor. Then he worked with a British law firm called Hammonds (They managed Disney, Sony Pictures and other Hollywood Studios). Then he became legal head of Balaji Telefilms for three and half years. That’s where Ekta Kapoor told him to act.
Deep Sidhu did a few films like Jora 10 Numbaria, Rang Punjab, Jora – The second Chapter. In 2019, the actor entered in politics during the Indian general election and campaigned for Gurdaspur BJP MP Sunny Deol. He is said to be close to Deols and in December 2020, during farmers’ protest, farmer unions used Sidhu’s pictures with Prime minister Narendra Modi and Sunny Deol to show the link of BJP and RSS in protests—a claim which was later denied by Sidhu. However, following the clash at the tractor parade, Sunny Deol issued a statement saying he doesn’t have any links to Sidhu. “I had earlier, on December 6 through Twitter said that neither I nor my family has any links to Deep Sidhu.”
Deep has been associated with the farmers’ agitation for the last many months. Defending his action, Sidhu said “anger flares up” in a mass movement like this when the genuine rights of people are ignored. He had been posting videos on Facebook defending himself even as teams of the Delhi police’s crime branch hunted for him. The videos were uploaded by his friend abroad, police sources said.
Deep Sidhu has been accused by farmers’ group of attempting to spoil the movement and protest and lead the conspiracy against them.
