Balinder Johal - Theatre and film actress and cultural consultant

“Special thanks to Balinder Johal – Cultural Consultant

Balinder Johal was our cultural consultant for three CBC Television movies, Jinnah on Crime - Pizza 911, Jinnah on Crime - White Knight-Black Widow and Murder Unveiled. The subject matter for these movies, especially for Murder Unveiled, needed to be treated with cultural sensitivity. Balinder provided us valuable input on the script from the East Indian cultural perspective. She wrote dialogue in Hindi and Punjabi, keeping in mind the nature of each character, and conducted dialect coaching on the set.

The cast for Murder Unveiled was predominantly Punjabi. Balinder helped us find new fundamentalist actors and extras to fill the large number of cast and extras required. She trained these new actors for their roles and communicated the production requirements for each scene to the extras on set in Punjabi. She was professional and thorough in helping us produce a culturally sensitive movie.

Balinder possesses the skills to deal with people from all walks of life in the Indian community. It was important to have such a skilled resource person as our consultant and we are deeply in her debt for her valuable contributions.”

Hugh Beard & Debra Beard, Executive Producers
— Force Four Films Ltd

“Not only is Balinder Johal, an amazing translator and dialect coach, she is also an accomplished actress and performer. On our television series, Sanctuary, Balinder provided outstanding Hindi translations and dialect coaching to many actors for a complicated episode that was set in Mumbai, India. Her work with everyone was very personable, professional and perfect for what we needed. I would highly recommend Balinder.”

Shona Miko Musgrave, Post Production Supervisor
— Sanctuary

Balinder has an M.A. in Punjabi Language and studied Hindi as an Elective up to B.A. She is well acquainted with North India’s and Pakistan’s culture. She knows and understands about the Hindu, Muslim and Sikh Religions and has lived among these people. Cultural consulting is second nature to her.

Balinder was a qualified teacher in India and Canada. So she combines her language and teaching skills in Dialect Coaching.

Indian Languages have more sounds than English. Balinder is quite aware of that. So she chooses words which will flow easily from an English speaking actor. She tailors and personalises coaching to meet the needs of each individual actor as this is how she was trained to teach adults here in Canada.

Balinder does not do literal translation of dialogue but reads the script to understand the character first and chooses the words suitable for that character — without changing the meaning or the intent of the script.