Baljinder Lailna

Baljinder Lailna is the General Secretary of Punjabi Arts Association, which has been involved in serving the community since 1992. He has worked in several stage plays as an actor, director, organizer and much more. Born in Gajjan Wala, Baljinder obtained a BSc. degree from D.M. College Moga, a subsector of Punjab University.

Later on he went on to work at the Oswal Concern Ludhiana and the Mukerian Paper Mills. In 1986 Baljinder immigrated to Canada and explored his love for theatre. Prior to creation of PAA, Baljinder had never participated in any theatre activity back home. Once in Canada his good friend, late Jagpal Chahal – who also had a great part in helping Baljinder settle in Canada- shared his passion for theatre and movies with Baljinder. Once this passion was ignited in both Baljinder and Jagpal they collaborated with friends Kuldip Randhawa, Baltej Pannu and Rajinder singh to organize Punjabi Lok Mela in 1992. This event included a team of ‘Sadhu Binning’ from Vancouver to travel to Toronto and put on two stage plays. Whilst organizing the Punjabi Lok Mela, Baljinder and his friends decided to put on some skits locally, which was his first

time acting.

At the Punjabi Lok Mela, the Vancouver team distributed their magazine titled: Watan, which included an article on theatre in Canada. This article highlighted theatre teams in Vancouver,Edmonton, Calgary and Winnipeg but at the time Toronto did not have any Punjabi theatre group. This realization led Baljinder and friends to form their own Toronto based theatre group – initially named Lok Rang Munch, now Punjabi Arts Association of Toronto.

Baljinder’s long history of participation includes roles in the following plays:

Hind Di Chader as Kaazi Vohra

Chamkaur Di Garhi Ton Sirhind Tak as Nawab Malerkotla

Hoye Pardesi as Canadian Punjabi father

Richtian Da Kee Rakhiye Naa as fauji Makhan Singh

Sabh Kuch Hot Upaye as Mugal fauji
Inqlab Zindabad as Shaheed Bhagat Singh

Dhukhday Kaleeray as Sarpanch

Baljinder has also taken his love of acting one step further to participate in movies such as:

After partaking in these various roles, Baljinder has now taken the lead on the organizational aspect of plays. He assists in play promotion, pre and post show interviews, ticket sales, venue scouting and much more. Additionally, Baljinder wanted to share the amazing work by the PAA team and arranged for play viewings in Markham, Montreal, Ottawa, Buffalo, Calgary, and Vancouver.

Through first organizing plays for other theatre teams, to then acting and directing plays for PAA, Baljinder has found a way to constantly indulge in his love for theatre. 

His hope for PAA is to continue involving new members of the community and put on plays that can really connect and start conversation in the Indian community here in Canada.