Harjap Singh Aujla 

Hitherto the females were supposed to perform mostly glamorous and delicate roles sitting in the studios of Punjabi television companies in America. They were doing light intellectual desk jobs or sitting in front of video cameras hosting talk shows or were busy canning material for pre-recorded shows. Sherry Dutta, by her sheer determination and grit has changed all that. Sherry is the daughter of a Punjabi refugee family from West Punjab settled in Kurukshetra, prior to 1966 in Punjab, but presently in Haryana. Her ancestors and neighbors come from a Standard Punjabi speaking region of Pakistani Punjab. As a result command over Punjabi language came naturally to her from her parents and neighbors. Later on she took a job at the East Punjab’s only Doordarshan Centre in Jalandhar, where she kept honing her skills as a multi-faceted broadcaster. She is married to a Jalandhar boy, who pulled his full weight to encourage her to excel as a spoken word professional in television broadcasting.

In America Sherry Dutta served GET Punjabi channel’s New York office, though the channel was primarily based in Bombay. She served in GET Punjabi for about two years from 2012 to May of 2014. She did not mind working for long durations, sometimes extending into late night hours. She hosted several live programs from the ethnic Indian places of culture and worship. Sherry covered two Sikh Day Parades in Manhattan in New York City, two Sikh Nagar Kirtans in Yuba City in California and several other religious processions in New York City and elsewhere all over the United States. She was the lead host at several fairs, entertainment shows and festivals.

Sherry Dutta hosted a daily talk and phone-in show known as “Saanjh Dilan Dee”. This was the most highly rated show in its early afternoon time slot. She also conducted interviews with men and women on the streets in America. This show after editing was telecast in India too. People loved her command over Central Spoken Punjabi, which is a rarity in East Punjab these days.

After GET Punjabi folded up, Sherry Dutta stayed out of work for three months and then joined Jus Punjabi in September 2014. She is quite new to Jus Punjabi, where all the existing popular slots are taken up by other broadcasters. She is temporarily working as a sundry, filling in for others, holding interviews and occasionally hosting shows. Whatever she does bears a stamp of her professionalism. Sherry is capable of doing a lot more, which she shall in due course. 

The other Punjabi lady I am going to talk about is Sumandeep Kaur, winner of an all Punjab beauty contest in 2005. Later on Sumandeep Kaur served as the brand ambassador for Limca soft drink manufacturing company (Bisleri) for one year 2005 - 2006. Then she served Channel Punjab and Zee-Alpha-ETC Punjabi channel between 2006 and 2008. In 2008, Sumandeep Kaur got married to a highly accomplished computer technocrat (architect) Harveer Singh of Ludhiana and left for Australia. Within a few months in 2008, she ended up in the USA as a spouse partner on her husband’s H-1 visa. While in New York she served Jus Punjabi channel for one year in 2008 – 2009 and then PTC Punjabi for two years in 2010 to 2011. Sumandeep Kaur had another stint in Jus Punjabi for ten months in the year 2012. Then due to some contractual stringencies, she stayed away from the television screens for a year and nine months. During this non-working period, Sumandeep Kaur ventured into documentary making on problems afflicting the society in Punjab. She has worked on making documentaries on the scourge of female feticide in Punjab and also the problem of drug addiction in the state. For doing this, she had to set up her own make-shift production house and hire entire film making crew. She had to venture into the notorious drug addicted areas of Amritsar and other border areas in Punjab.  While in India Sumandeep Kaur also conceived the idea of a very popular Punjabi TV show “Shokiniyan” and engaged a brilliant and linguistically perfect Harpreet Kaur Hanjrah to play host for it. This weekly half an hour long show, exhibiting some special tastes and hobbies of the Punjabis, is a big time hit with the viewers in North America.

In the meanwhile Sunil Hali and Harbhajan Singh, who were until 2012 -13 holding the New York citadel of PTC Punjabi, had parted company with PTC Punjabi channel. They had joined hands with Jaspal Shetra of GPunjab. All three knew the worth of Sumandeep Kaur. Sumandeep Kaur was jointly persuaded to serve the “GLOBAL PUNJAB” channel as a vice president taking care of the programming. She is serving in this position in the New York head office of the channel. Sumandeep Kaur has not done too many programs yet. One of her future programs will be a talk show “Roshni”. She has done the role of master of ceremony for a popular fund raising event on behalf of a private university being set up by the Baru Sahib Trust and she hosts a weekly show on “Guru Nanak Mission”. Her hosting of the TV coverage of the annual dinner of “Sikh American Chamber of Commerce” in 2014 was a big hit for the viewers of “Global Punjab”. Under her leadership, the viewership of “Global Punjab” is increasing steadily. But the viewers want more shows hosted by her including shows on the film personalities of India, both past and present. Her fans want more current affairs programs from her similar to the hit show“NRI WORLD”. She should learn from Kanwar Sandhu, who at that time as the head of “DAY & NIGHT NEWS” preferred to lead from the front. He hosted a daily live one hour long call in show “HALLO NORTH AMERICA”, which from day one became the most popular show in its time slot. Both “DAY & NIGHT NEWS” and “Global Punjab” gained a lot from this popular show. Management of programming at a TV channel is indeed a big responsibility, let us see how Sumandeep Kaur handles it in the long run.

harjapaujla@gmail.com