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Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti's play Behzti, set in a Sikh gurdwara, caused riots - the fallout forced her into hiding. Her new work, Behud, directly addresses the controversy.
Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti refuses to have her photograph taken for this paper. She’s not being difficult - the reason for her refusal is simple. She’s the writer responsible for Behzti (Dishonour) which, famously, caused a riot at the Birmingham Rep in 2004.
Incensed by her decision to set her play in a Sikh temple - a gurdwara - and for presenting it as a den of iniquity, rife with patriarchal sexual abuse - hundreds of Sikh protestors gathered on several consecutive nights to voice their anger before attempting to storm the theatre on Saturday December 18.
Windows were smashed, arrests were made, Bhatti - already the subject of violent threats - was forced to go into hiding, and the production’s run was abruptly cancelled.
This shocking, unexpected episode, unparalleled in modern British theatre, became a cause celebre and serves as a chilling illustration of how fragile freedom of speech can be.
Five years on, Bhatti remains understandably wary about being easily identified. And yet the smart, petite Asian woman who meets me in a central London cafe couldn’t be further from the cowed or chastened figure one might have expected. Revisiting the saga for the first time in a national newspaper, the 41-year-old playwright comes across as quiet, thoughtful and, above all, totally defiant.
“I’d do it again,” she says, firmly, almost matter-of-factly. “I wouldn’t think twice about it. Behzti was the play I wanted to write. I always believed in what I’d done.”
She has steered clear of media interviews until now, she explains, because she wanted to get on with her life and work, developing projects for TV, film and radio. “I had to do that. I’m a human being, not a controversy.”
She realised Behzti was provocative - up to a point: “I’m from a Sikh background. I knew it would be controversial, but I don’t think there’s anything wrong with provoking people.”
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With thanks : Telegraph.co.uk
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