In 1999, Pardeep Nagra was the Ontario flyweight amateur boxing champion, and he was on his way to compete at the national level when the Canadian Amateur Boxing Association banned him from the sport for wearing a turban and beard, which are articles of his Sikh faith, in the ring. Nagra challenged the decision and the courts eventually ruled in his favour, allowing Sikh boxers within Canada to fight with their facial hair.

Inspired by Nagra’s story, Canadians Prem Singh and Michael Pugliese wrote the upcoming film Tiger about his fight for his religious freedoms, concurrent to his battles in the ring. They also portray Nagra and rival boxer Bryan Doyle respectively, while Mickey Rourke stars as Nagra’s coach Frank Donovan in the film.

Singh and Pugliese recently spoke with BarDown about Tiger, Nagra’s story and the ripple effect of his struggle.

Tiger opens at Cineplex in Toronto, Mississauga, Vancouver and Surrey on November 30th, and other Canadian cities in following weeks. This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

BarDown: When you first heard about Pardeep’s story, was it something that resonated with you personally?

Prem Singh: Oh, absolutely. I think I heard the story on Michael Landsberg’s Off the Record on TSN, so that’s ironic, and on television, I saw it back in 1999. I thought to myself, when I would go to auditions a bit ago, I would audition for a lot of these stereotypical roles, and I just felt that I didn’t like it because I wanted to do a lot more than that.

So, when I saw the story and I heard Pardeep speak, he spoke so intelligently, not just about the religion, but about his identity, who he is. And this is who he is. He was pushing the fact that, ‘I’m Canadian.’ That resonated with me so much, because he wanted to be looked at like a regular human being, where other people would look at him and go, ‘Also, what country are you from? So what’s your background?,’ just because he looked differently.

I was going up for roles, for characters on a stereotypical level... and I kind of wanted to tell a different story. That’s when, you know, me growing up in a Sikh household, seeing my father who would wear the turban and beard, and him going through all that, that resonated with me on a personal level.

I would say that Pardeep’s story was a truly landmark case in sports, but I don’t think it’s one that is really broadly known, outside of maybe the Sikh community. Why do you feel it’s important for the Canadian Sikh experience to be reflected in our story-telling?

Singh: I think it’s very important, and these cases are still going on. Pardeep passed legislation for fighters [in Canada] who have facial hair or have articles of faith to fight. There was a gentleman in the U.S. Army that fought for the same rights to have a turban and beard, and he won. You have ladies that are fighting for the right to wear hijabs. It propels forward into different things, to other people. They’re changing the rules, and it shows that you can change the rules. For Pardeep, this is part of who he is, just like a woman who wears a hijab, that’s part of who she is. I think that’s important to story-telling and to have Pardeep push that forward is truly remarkable.

Michael Pugliese: Yeah, it’s a wonderful thing for the community, for sure. Looking at it from, I guess, the outside in, and not being a part of the community like Prem is or Pardeep is, I think it’s a good way to educate others who are misled or who aren’t exactly sure of what it means to be Sikh and what it means to have a turban or beard. Being not from the community, I think it resonates well with others to educate themselves about a misunderstood religion, but also inspiring them to stand up for whatever they believe in, just as Pardeep Nagra has done. So, that’s what attracted me to the story and drew me to this important, topical subject matter.

"Hopefully with Tiger, it allows others to take a look at what Pardeep has done, and allow these boxers to [maintain] their religious freedoms, to continue the fight because Pardeep has done it."

Michael Pugliese as Bryan Doyle

How did you guys get in shape for this film? Had you guys ever boxed before, or was it something you guys picked up wholly through training?

Pugliese: No, we’d never boxed before, but we started writing the screenplay maybe back in 2010, and we always knew we were going to be in front of the camera one day, we always knew it was going to happen, so we started training and eating right, and getting to that mindset to try to really embody these characters and bring the best possible that we could to the table. So, we were hitting the gym and boxing since 2010.

Prem actually trained with Pardeep’s real coach, Dwight [Fraser], so Prem really got into shape. He watched a lot of footage of Pardeep boxing, he got his mannerisms right, he threw punches like Pardeep did, and he really put in the work. So, we were training for quite some time.

I heard that there was a pretty cool story behind how you guys got Mickey Rourke on board with the film. How did that happen?

Singh: Oh, here we go.

Pugliese: [laughs] Nah, I tell everybody that Prem, just, he’s a bit of a stalker, so he could find out where anybody trains, or really does anything.

Singh: Oh my god! Are you kidding me?

Pugliese: [laughs] No, but so, Prem found out where Mickey trained. We went down to the Wild Card boxing gym, which is Freddie Roach’s gym, and we walked in there. We knew that Mickey comes in there every day to train, so we hit the bag for a couple hours. Freddie Roach was kind enough to make the introduction, and we got a chance to shoot it with Mickey for a good hour after his training session was done, and we pitched him the project. We told him about the storyline and the truth behind it and how we would love to send him the script and get him to read it, and the rest was history.

Mickey Rourke as Frank Donovan

Were there any boxing films that you looked to in the process?

Singh: I looked up to Rocky.

Pugliese: That’s your favorite movie, isn’t it?

Singh: Yeah, my favorite movie of all-time, the Rocky series. Yes, I even liked Rocky V.

Pugliese: [laughs] It was good. I liked it.

Singh: So I was a big fan of Rocky, and a big fan of Creed — I just loved it. That kind of also gave me ideas while getting the concept and writing the story... That kind of motivated us to do our own thing.

Pugliese: Yeah, you look at these guys like [Sylvester] Stallone or Rocky, they paved the way. They allow us to believe in something bigger, for us to create our own work and get it out there, and if it wasn’t for them to inspire us, who knows if we would ever make Tiger. So you see a guy like Sly, who created Rocky, that’s propelled us to say, you know what, if he could do it, we could too. And we hope that we inspire whoever’s going to be watching Tiger and then looking at our story to say, if these two guys could do it, so can we.

Broadly, there’s a very public conversation right now about whether sports and politics should be allowed to clash or stay separate, but (as seen in Tiger) that isn’t a choice for everyone. Do you feel it’s important for athletes, or even celebrities in general, to be able to use their platform and their voices as activists?

Pugliese: Of course. I think for us, and we’re nobody special, but we get to have this platform, and look, we have the honour of speaking with you and a bunch of other outlets, and we get to speak about something that we truly believe in. You know, making movies and making content is something that we’re extremely passionate about and we have a burning desire for, but what’s truly fulfilling is trying to inspire others or trying to educate others or trying to help others through the platform that we have.

So, I encourage it, I love seeing it. I think it’s a beautiful, beautiful thing, being able to use yourself and your brand and your platform to speak about something that truly matters to you.

Prem Singh (left) and Pardeep Nagra

Correct me if I’m wrong, but my understanding is that while boxers are now allowed to compete with facial hair in Canada, this isn’t the case yet internationally. Is that something you hope to address with this film?

Pugliese: Yeah, definitely. You know, there’s a case right now in California, there’s a kid, 15 or 16 years old, who is Sikh, and the boxing commission is giving him some pushback, saying, look, you can’t come to the ring wearing a turban and having facial hair, you have to shave it, and he’s going through the same issue [as Pardeep]. Even in the UK, they’re going through the same issue.

It’s an ongoing thing, but I think with Tiger and hopefully other films in the future, this helps propel that movement forward. Hopefully with Tiger, it allows others to take a look at what Pardeep has done, and allow these boxers to [maintain] their religious freedoms, to continue the fight because Pardeep has done it. I think that’s really important, and we hope that this story does resonate with these kids, and allow them to be like, if Pardeep could do it, I could do it too, to make a change.

Singh: We also hope to inspire other filmmakers to create content that people have not seen before, and especially in the mainstream, and that’s why making Pardeep an American is the direction that we wanted to go with in that sense, because it would hit on a wider scale. We just hope to inspire a lot of people who are creating movies to create, not just on an entertainment level, but on a level where people can start a conversation. And that’s what we wanted, we wanted people to start a conversation.