Still Game star Sanjeev Kohli has played the legendary Navid Harrid - a humorous and lovable shopkeeper - and is also a regular in River City. The Glaswegian actor now features in a romantic-comedy which is out in UK cinemas today.
Little English is a British-Asian rom-com which tells the story of Simmy (Rameet Rauli), a girl who gets married and moves from India to Slough, in England. But her groom does a runner, leaving her trapped in the house with her in-laws and under the domineering gaze of her mother-in-law.
On top of all this, her brother-in-law has just been released from jail. Luckily, Simmy has a Scottish uncle called Ranjeet (played by Sanjeev) who visits her to see how she's getting on - but he's an alcoholic.
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Written and directed by Pravesh Kumar MBE, the film features a diverse cast with some recognisable faces including Nikki Patel - who played Dev's daughter, Amber Kalirai, in Coronation Street.
Speaking about his new role and how it compares to his previous jobs, Sanjeev told Glasgow Live: "It’s incredibly authentic and when you watch it as a British-Asian, there’s so many references from the little things like the decor in the house or the way people speak. It’s very on-point.
"This role is a little bit more cartoony. With River City, I’m a returning character over a course of six or seven years and get to play a lot of nuances.
"Navid (Still Game) has been an absolute gift for me because I’m basically my dad without the turban. He is an Asian shopkeeper in a poor area who relies on his banter to get through the day and is quite sarcastic. It has been a joy to play him.
"He (Navid) might be fictional but people feel that they know him and they like him. For me, that does a lot of good for race relations and I’m glad to be part of that.
"Little English is really funny, authentic and it undermines a lot of stereotypes of the Asian community in a good way. More than anything else, it’s a laugh and a good story with great writing and actors."
Sanjeev initially had a maths degree before "falling into" acting and he hasn't looked back since.
He's played many roles during the course of his successful career but his favourite part of Little English was that he got to showcase Scottish-Asians - who he feels other Asians don't know exist.
Sanjeev added: "A lot of British-Asians don’t know that Scottish-Asians exist. I certainly remember when I was a kid, aged around nine or 10, there was a little bit of racism and there weren’t many Asians in Glasgow.
"You’d go to weddings in London and think that’s great, you’re going to meet all these other brown people and it’s going to be great. But you get there and they are all slagging off your accent.
"In Scotland we weren’t seen as Scottish but in England we weren’t seen as Asian. What I loved about playing this part was getting a chance to showcase Scottish-Asians in a mostly English-Asian film.
"If you could give people a different precinct and geographic location for a story then why would you not exploit that?
"I’m proud to be Scottish, Asian and Glaswegian - and I’ll happily showcase all of those things on screen and hopefully in a way that doesn’t make us look stupid or like victims. Asians need to be represented across the board.
"We should be able to play the on-screen negative and positive stuff."
Little English is in cinemas from today (March 17). Check the website for screening details here.
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