We chat to Sanjeev Kohli about his iconic Still Game character Navid in Glasgow’s The Drake

National World - LocalTV

We sit down with Scottish comic actor Sanjeev Kohli to talk about the making of his iconic Still Game character Navid.

Transcript

00:00Still Game was really my big breakout acting job.

00:02That was the first time I'd acted with any of them.

00:04I didn't know the impact the show was going to make.

00:06I certainly didn't know the impact the video was going to make.

00:08What I did know was, was that it was a joy to play him.

00:11I call it the Glasgow Asian accent.

00:13That pure Governor Hill, Bollocks Shields thing, right?

00:15Because I knew guys at college, right?

00:16Taught like that, right?

00:18Pure Glasgow, also pure Asian.

00:20They are no pals with hockey sticks.

00:21They'll break your legs, yeah?

00:23And I would listen to this.

00:23And I grew up in Bishop Briggs, very vanilla neighbourhood.

00:26So I went to Langside College for a year.

00:28I'd pure listen to these vaidos talking like this.

00:30Going up the Vicky Road, causing trouble, going to kebabish.

00:33These are chippings and pickles, yeah?

00:35And I was like, I'm loving this.

00:36And I knew I could do it.

00:38And then I thought, right, OK, with Naveed,

00:41I want to play him like my dad.

00:42He was in his mid-thirties before he came to Glasgow.

00:44So he never picked up the twang.

00:46So my dad would speak like this, you know?

00:48Eat that you cheeky bugger.

00:50Check the pressure in your tyres.

00:51Check the pressure in your boiler.

00:52Just check all the pressure everywhere.

00:54Talked like this.

00:55So I just knew if I just gave it that wee tenor tortoise quality,

00:57I could just go leave early.

00:59I could just take my dad's voice and ouija up a wee bit.

01:02And I knew he had the voice.

01:03And then for the physicality of Naveed, my dad,

01:05if you put a turban on Naveed, that's my dad.

01:08So I found it very comforting to play him.

01:11And there I see it quite easy to make the transition.

01:14And what I loved about it was I could

01:16bring all my kind of Asian experience,

01:18all my Glasgow experience, and it comes to a beautiful point

01:21in Naveed, you know?

01:22And also my dad's incredibly sarcastic, which was handy.

01:26Because Naveed also is.

01:27Again, what I loved about the Naveed character was

01:29Ford and Gregg created Naveed, wrote all the words.

01:32They're geniuses.

01:33But also they had the foresight to write an Asian character

01:36of such prominence.

01:37I would have been worried myself.

01:39But what I loved about Naveed was that he was nobody's victim.

01:43He was the richest guy in Craig Lang.

01:45He was the one driving the tan Merc with the private number plate,

01:48which you never actually saw.

01:49But he was clearly the king of Craig Lang

01:51because he was the richest guy.

01:52And that is a dynamic that you see all across.

01:57I was going to say Scotland, but all across the UK

01:59is a lot of convenience stores, corner shops.

02:04Asian families work their absolute bahooki off

02:07and make the money.

02:08And they're in quite kicked in areas,

02:09but they do really, really well.

02:11So I was sort of channeling that.

02:14But also just because once you put the fake,

02:16and it is a fake belly that we put on Naveed,

02:18so what you have is this kind of adult baby grow thing

02:21with a pillow down the duke.

02:23And suddenly you're like that.

02:25And suddenly you're like, this is arrogance.

02:28It's just your stance.

02:30Because I've got quite poor posture.

02:31I'm quite slouchy.

02:32But once that goes in, suddenly you're like that.

02:35I run this place.

02:36I run this place.

02:37And you channel that as well.

02:39The physicality is quite useful for that.

02:42But you just always have in your mind

02:43that you're the guy, you're the richest guy.

02:45It's quite funny because I think one of the first times

02:48Naveed comes out of the shop was the episode

02:52where his brothers died and he has to go to the funeral in India.

02:55So he goes to Jack and Victor's to ask them to run the shop.

02:59And Michael Hines, the director, said,

03:01you know, when you go to that close,

03:04walk around like you own the place.

03:06So I do.

03:07I totally like, I'm like that, flicking things, you know.

03:10Picking up the thing, what's this for?

03:12You're in someone's space and you're totally like, yeah.

03:15It's like, imagine King Charles came to your house.

03:17You'd be like, get the tea on.

03:19Come on, where's the biscuits?

03:21So that was kind of the dynamic with Naveed.

03:23He was definitely kind of, there was an arrogance there

03:25because he knew that he was the richest guy there.

03:27And he's channeled that, really.

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