Birmingham: A conversation with Kabir Bedi
By: Anders Frejdh
Published:
2005-12-01
On 26th November 2005, the cinema of the Midlands Arts Centre hosted A Conversation with Kabir Bedi – Film: Fiction and Fact, Creativity and Commerce, A Guide to Surviving Hollywood, Bollywood and Pinewood.
This was a lecture and interview session with the Indian actor
Kabir Bedi famed, in Bond circles, for playing Sikh warrior, Gobinda, the physical threat and henchmen of Prince Kamal Khan (played by
Louis Jordan) in
Octopussy (1983) (1983).
Bedi proved to be a fascinating and spiritual interviewee with an interesting background in advertising and a career spanning three continents.
He was brutally honest and insightful about all aspects of the film, TV and theatre industries. He briefly commented on his time in the 13th Eon Bond film saying, unusually, that at first he thought Roger Moore was arrogant.
He later got to know the leading man and they went on long walks together. He thought that Roger was just very shy.
He also revealed that he tried to convince the director (
John Glen) to allow Gobinda to have a special power: a cobra-like ability to be able to hypnotise his enemy with his direct stare. This idea was nixed in favour of more realistic physical skills.
Bedi was interviewed by Ranjit Sondhi, chair of organizer
Sampad and by Raj and Pablo, presenters of Film Cafe, broadcast by BBC Asian Network (co-sponsor with the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce).
Anders Frejdh © 2005 From Sweden With Love
(This article was first published in issue 2 of James Bond International Fan Club's publication
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang)
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