Sandeep Singh Sidhu, known as Deep Sidhu (2 April 1984 – 15 February 2022) was an Indian actor, barrister and activist who worked in
Punjabi
Punjabi, or Panjabi, most often refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to Punjab, a region in India and Pakistan
* Punjabi language
* Punjabi people
* Punjabi dialects and languages
Punjabi may also refer to:
* Punjabi (horse), a British Th ...
language films. Sidhu started his film career with the Punjabi film ''
Ramta Jogi'' which was produced by actor
Dharmendra under his banner
Vijayta Films
Vijayta Films Pvt Ltd is an Indian entertainment company owned by the Deol family. It started with ''Betaab'' (1983), the debut film of veteran actor, Dharmendra's son Sunny Deol and is most known for '' Ghayal'' (1990) starring Sunny Deol, whi ...
.
He is also known as the founder of the
Punjabi
Punjabi, or Panjabi, most often refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to Punjab, a region in India and Pakistan
* Punjabi language
* Punjabi people
* Punjabi dialects and languages
Punjabi may also refer to:
* Punjabi (horse), a British Th ...
-centric social organisation, 'Waris Panjab De'.
Early life
Sidhu was born on 2 April 1984, to a
Punjabi
Punjabi, or Panjabi, most often refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to Punjab, a region in India and Pakistan
* Punjabi language
* Punjabi people
* Punjabi dialects and languages
Punjabi may also refer to:
* Punjabi (horse), a British Th ...
family in Udekaran village of
Muktsar district of
Punjab.
His father Sardar Surjit Singh Sidhu was a lawyer and his mother passed away when he was 4 years old. He has a brother called Surjit. He obtained a degree in law from
Punjabi University in
Patiala.
Prior to his separation, Deep Sidhu was married to Namrata Sidhu and they both had a daughter called Rahne. He then started dating actress Reena Rai.
Career
Before starting his acting career Sidhu worked as a model, then as a lawyer.
He practiced law only for a short time.
Legal Career
Acting
Sidhu made his acting debut in ''Ramta Jogi'', which brought him the
PTC Punjabi Film Award for Best male debut in Punjabi Cinema in 2016. He then made an even bigger impression in ''
Jora 10 Numbaria
''Jora 10 Numbaria'' is a 2017 Punjabi film written and directed by Amardeep Singh Gill.
Plot
A traumatic childhood and a corrupt justice system push a young man to become a ruthless gangster.
Cast
*Dharmendra as Jagga Baba
*Deep Sidhu as Jo ...
'' (2017). He followed that with ''Rang Panjab'' (2018), ''Saade Aale'' (2018), ''Desi'' (2019) and ''Jora: The Second Chapter'' (2020).
Politics
Sidhu entered politics during the
2019 Indian general election
General elections were held in India in seven phases from 11 April to 19 May 2019 to elect the members of the 17th Lok Sabha. Votes were counted and the result was declared on 23 May. Around 912 million people were eligible to vote, and voter ...
when he campaigned for actor-turned-politician
Sunny Deol
Ajay Singh Deol (born 19 October 1956), better known by his stage name Sunny Deol, is an Indian actor, film director, producer, politician and current Member of Parliament from Gurdaspur (Lok Sabha constituency) of Punjab, India. As an actor, ...
, the
BJP candidate for the
Gurdaspur constituency. He was said to be close to Deol and in December 2020, during the
farmers protest, farmer unions used Sidhu's pictures with Prime Minister
Narendra Modi and Sunny Deol to show his links to the BJP and
RSS
RSS ( RDF Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication) is a web feed that allows users and applications to access updates to websites in a standardized, computer-readable format. Subscribing to RSS feeds can allow a user to keep track of many di ...
in protests—a claim which was later denied by Sidhu.
The farmer unions blamed Sidhu and gangster-turned-activist Lakha Sidhana for instigating a riot and hoisting a religious flag on
Red Fort during the
2021 Farmers' Republic Day parade
The 2021 Farmers' Republic Day protest was a protest on 26 January 2021 at Delhi. Part of the 2020–2021 Indian farmers' protest, it turned violent when a group of protestors deviated from the parade to storm the Red Fort. The protest took pla ...
. Sidhu and Sadana were also booked by the police.
In a preliminary investigation by the police, they said in a statement "there was a pre-conceived and well-coordinated plan to break the agreement between the
Delhi Police
The Delhi Police (DP) is the law enforcement agency for the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). Delhi Police comes under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), Government of India. In 2015, sanctioned strength of Delhi ...
and the leaders of protesting organizations."
Sidhu was arrested on 9 February 2021 in a police case related to violence at the Red Fort. Sidhu pleaded innocence in the case and claimed he was not involved in any violence nor did he incite others. Sidhu claimed he was peacefully exercising his right to protest and was implicated as he was a "popular face" present "at the wrong place at the wrong time".
After his bail plea was approved, he was arrested a second time on a police case filed by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). ASI had accused Sidhu of damaging the monument and vandalism by the rioters. His lawyer denounced the second arrest after bail as unconstitutional.
He was released on bail on 16 April 2021.
In September Sidhu formed a political organisation named ''Waris Punjab De'' that would work to get the farmers their rights from the Union government. Before his death, he campaigned for far-right leader
Simranjit Singh Mann and
Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar).
Death
Sidhu met with a road accident on 15 February 2022, at the age of 37. The accident occurred on the
Kundli-Manesar highway, in Haryana's Kharkhoda area, near Delhi. Sidhu was driving his car (a
Mahindra Scorpio) towards Punjab. There were two people in the car; the passenger was his girlfriend, Punjabi film actress Reena Rai, survived with injuries.
According to
Sonipat police, Sidhu died around 9 p.m. near the
Peepli toll booth, after his car hit the rear end of a truck parked on the highway. The truck had broken down on the side of the road. The driver side of the car took the maximum impact of the crash. Sidhu was declared dead at the hospital.
Filmography
Honours and awards
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Sidhu, Deep
1984 births
2022 deaths
21st-century Indian lawyers
Male actors from Punjab, India
Male actors in Hindi cinema
Male actors in Punjabi cinema
People from Sri Muktsar Sahib district
Road incident deaths in India