MUMBAI: The Punjab state education minister S S Sekhwan was in Mumbai recently to felicitate Punjabi producers and actors for their role in promoting Punjabi language and culture in films.

Prominent amongst those honoured on the occasion included Yash Chopra, Prem Chopra, Om Puri, Poonam Dhillon, Gul Panag, cinematographer Manmohan Singh, Jaspinder Narula, Sonu Sood, Neeru Bajwa, Divya Dutta, Bhupinder-Mitali Singh, Navneet Nishan, Parikshit Sahni, Raza Murad, Viru Devgan, Uttam Singh, Ajit Singh Deol, Gurdas Mann and Rakesh Bedi.

The minister took advantage of the occasion to take on Bollywood for its wrong and non-serious depiction of Punjabi characters. He appealed to the representatives of the entertainment industry to be "very careful on this front, as even an inadvertent action could attract public anger which could pose as a serious threat to the social fabric" of any region.

“Punjab government does not like Bollywood depicting Punjabi characters as comical and non-serious,” Sekhwan said.

The Punjab government also paid homage to the late Mahedra Kapoor, Manohar Deepak, Anand Bakshi, Vivek Shauq by awarding them posthumously.

The minister also announced the setting up of a Punjabi Academy to promote Punjabis in films, television, radio and animation programmes with active participation of stalwarts of media entertainment industry.