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Rajvinder Singh is dead: He spoke Raj in "The Big Bang Theory"

2021-12-22T16:01:17.526Z


He was born in Punjab and wrote in his "stepmother" German, Frank-Walter Steinmeier quoted him. Many know his voice from a TV sitcom. Rajvinder Singh has now died at the age of 65.


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Rajvinder Singh: He sang his poems to the illiterate in Punjab

Photo:

SL / picture alliance / dpa / private

The fact that it is not trivial whose voice a television character speaks became evident in the dispute over the spokesman for the "Simpsons" figure Apu - whose long-time spokesman Hank Azaria - he is white - had spoken to the kiosk owner with an Indian accent.

He resigned after this was raised as a problem in a documentary and apologized to the Indian community.

Enlarge image

"Big Bang Theory" figure Raj (Kunal Nayyar with Kaley Cuoco as Penny)

Photo: CBS / Mary Evans Archives / IMAGO

At Dr.

Rajesh Ramayan Koothrappali, called "Raj" by his friends for the sake of simplicity, should also be cautious when it comes to voice actors.

Because the character from the sitcom "The Big Bang Theory", played by Kunal Nayyar, who was born in London into an Indian immigrant family, already plays very strongly with clichéd ideas about Indians.

But her voice actor, Rajvinder Singh, also contributed to the popularity of »Raj« with the German audience.

His father made him older

Rajvinder Singh once said in an interview that he has been "homeless" since he left his mother's womb.

There was confusion about when this time was exactly, because his father made him a good two years older with the authorities so that he could start school earlier.

Father's hopes that his son would one day become a doctor were not fulfilled - but his native city of Kapurthala was to make him an honorary citizen in 2003 for his writing.

In Punjab he was a theater activist and sang his poems to illiterate people on the street.

After several imprisonments for political reasons, Singh left India and arrived in Berlin in 1981, where he studied at the Technical University.

Soon he was composing in his "stepmother" German.

In the writers' association PEN he headed the “Writers in Prison” committee.

In one work he described himself as "a word arrow / addicted to dialogue".

Singh lived out this addiction to dialogue in several series of talks that he held in Berlin.

In schools he often gave writing workshops and spoke to schoolchildren about cultural diversity.

He got to know Germany outside of Berlin better as a town clerk.

In Rheinsberg, Brandenburg, he experienced harassment and threatening phone calls, in Trier he learned to appreciate Moselle wine.

"With six eyes"

In 2004, Rajvinder Singh was in Frank-Walter Steinmeier's escort on his trip to India.

Singh introduced the then foreign minister to the “principle of seeing with six eyes”, which Steinmeier then quoted in speeches and writings: “From my two eyes and two of the other, I form two common eyes in order to create a view of commonality be able."

A large audience, however, is primarily familiar with Singh's gentle voice: he used it to synchronize numerous Indian characters for film and television, including the astrophysicist Raj played by Kunal Nayyar in "The Big Bang Theory".

Perhaps his voice fits "with the poetic streak of the character when he looks at the stars," mused Rajvinder Singh in an interview.

On December 16, Rajvinder Singh died after a short illness in Berlin, as the dubbing director Stefan Ludwig, a family friend, and his last book publisher Klak announced.

At ProSieben, Singh will be remembered with an “In Memoriam” board on the next Monday before the broadcast of a “The Big Bang Theory” repetition.

feb / dpa

Source: spiegel

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