Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti
Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti is a British playwright and screenwriter. Her play Behzti was cancelled by the Birmingham Repertory Theatre after protests against the play turned violent and death threats forced Bhatti to go into hiding.
Life
Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti was born into a working-class Sikh Punjabi family in Watford. She went to the University of Bristol to study Chemistry but graduated with honours in Modern Languages. Before becoming a full-time playwright and screenwriter, she worked in a hospital laundry and a women’s refuge. She has also been a waitress, actor, workshop leader and a carer.Work
Bhatti's first play, Behsharam, broke box office records at Soho Theatre and Birmingham Rep when it opened in 2001.In 2005, Behzti won the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for the best English language play written by a woman.
In 2010, her follow-up to Behzti titled Behud was co-produced by Soho Theatre and Coventry Belgrade and was shortlisted for the John Whiting Award.
In 2014, Khandan opened at the Birmingham Rep before transferring to the Royal Court Theatre.
In June 2014, her first anthology of plays, Plays One, was published by Oberon Books.
Bhatti's other credits include Scenes from Lost Mothers ; Silence ; 846 ; A Kind of People ; Elephant ; Dishoom ; Fourteen ; the feature film Everywhere And Nowhere; DCI Stone, Radio 4; Londonee ; Dead Meat, Channel 4 and An Enemy Of The People, BBC World Service.
She was a core writer on The Archers from 2012 to 2019, part of the team that created the ‘Helen and Rob’ domestic violence story. She has also written for EastEnders and Hollyoaks.
In 2025, her adaptation of Sathnam Sanghera’s Marriage Material was produced at the Lyric Hammersmith and her play Choir opened at Chichester Festival Theatre.
Awards
- 2003 Nominated for the Race in the Media Award by the Commission for Racial Equality in the radio music/entertainment category for North East South West.
- Asian Women of Achievement awards, nominated twice
- 2005 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, a US-based award of $10,000 made annually to the best English language play by a woman, for Behzti
- 2010 Behud nominated for the John Whiting Award
- 2020 A Kind of People nominated for the Asian Media Awards
- 2025 Marriage Material finalist for the Asian Media Awards
Plays
- Soho Theatre, London 2001Behzti The Door, Birmingham Rep, Birmingham, UK 2005Come to Where I'm From,, Listen to the
- Soho Theatre, London 2010Londonee, Mukul and Ghetto Tigers and Lifeguard Productions Two Old Ladies, Leicester Haymarket 2000Fourteen, Watford Palace Theatre commissioned 'Fourteen' after Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti wrote a short play for 'Come To Where I'm From' in 2010, co-produced by Watford Palace Theatre and Paines PloughKhandan, A Royal Court Theatre and Birmingham Repertory Theatre Co-production"A Kind of People". Premiered at the Royal Court Theatre London.
- ''"Marriage Material". Adapted from Satnam Sangerha's novel, premiered at the Birmingham Rep and Lyric Hammersmith.''
Radio, Films, TV and Teleplays
',, The Archers, BBC Radio 4Everywhere and Nowhere, feature film, 2011Dead Meat, half-hour film produced by Channel 4 as part of the Dogma TV seasonStitched Up, Commissioned Series for BBC1Honour, single Film for BBC2The Cleaner, hour-long film for BBC1Lipstick and Nails, police drama for Great Meadow ProductionsPound Shop Boys, originally commissioned by October Films/Film Council/Scottish Screen and developed through PAL Airport 2000, Leicester Haymarket / Riverside Studios- '