When it comes to the portrayal of Sikhs on the big screen, Sadda Haq tried to undo a lot of damage that has been done by Bollywood movies.  Bollywood portrays Sikh characters as comical—jokes such as “12 o’clock” and others are used openly.  The impact of these movies is so great that Sikhs are shunning their identity and trying to copy the Bollywood “superstars”.   Respectful terms like “Gyani” and “Sardar” are now avoided by Sikhs due to such demoralization.

It is not often we see someone break the norms set by Bollywood.  It was done possibly for the first time in Sadda Haq.  Now, once again another person has tried to demonstrate a turbaned image to the World.  Call it negative or positive; Waris Ahluwalia’s GAP ad is not analogous to the representation of Sikhs by Bollywood.
Being a practicing Sikh, it is awkward to see a woman touch a “Singh” publicly in such a way.  However, being
a Punjabi, I know our community is not totally naive to such pictures.   You don’t have to go far, just go to your neighborhood Gurdwara and pick up any random Punjabi newspaper.  You will find pictures more raunchy than the GAP ad.  I personally think this particular ad by GAP is much more decent when compared to the ones published routine by Punjabi Newspapers.
A lot of support for the ad has been expressed by those who do not adhere to the Sikh identity.  This is particularly interesting as people without Sikhi saroop are appreciating Waris for raising awareness of the Sikh Identity.  Not everyone will appreciate the approach by Waris but there is one thing we can all take from the advertisement: that is, all of us need to play our part in raising awareness of who Sikhs are.
Real awareness will come when those who stand with Waris also consider wearing a dastar in public.  Even
if it’s for one day to begin with—but slowly, let’s find our roots and realize that as Sikhs we need to stand out
and not blend in.  The message applies equally to women as it does to men.  We must realize that Sikhi is a beautiful path and so is the Sikh appearance.   Let’s look deep inside and appreciate our inner beauty, which does not require molding ourselves to standards set by the media.  Rather, one’s internal and external self illuminates after contemplation of the Guru’s word and wisdom.
Prabhdev Singh has Engineering and IT degrees and is overseeing many Khalis Foundation projects.  He currently supervises the media and outreach division of Khalis Foundation.  He is also involved in managing various IT and administrative functions of the foundation.  He is currently working for an IT company as a
project manager and apart from this, he is involved in various local Sikh camps and other projects