The other Gama: Amritsar-born Gama Pehalwan achieved the legendary status of being undefeated in his 50-yr career. A Canadian documentary on his namesake expat whips up the Gama magic

GAMA PEHALWAN is said to have won over 5,000 bouts in his lifetime. By the age of 10, he had the patronage of the Maharaja of Datia and the Maharaja of Patiala. At 17, he had the bragging rights to challenge Rustam-e-Hind Raheem Baksh Sultani Wala. From there on, there was no looking back for almost four decades. The 5’7” tall wrestler, weighing around 115 kg, remained undefeated in his 50-year career.

For decades, the Gama story has been real as well as mythical. It is said the Great Gama, despite his success and mass following, died in abject poverty in Lahore on May 23, 1960, but wrestlers all over the world believe that the ultimate epitome of physicality actually walked into eternity that day.

Gama entered into the virtual realm in the mid-1990s when arcade game Street Fighter EX came up with a character named Darun Mister — his trademark moustache, body structure and wrestling style bearing an uncanny resemblance to the Great Gama. A little earlier, in the 1970s and 1980s, a Punjabi-origin professional wrestler, Gadowar Singh Sahota, took up the stage name ‘Gama Singh’ and revved up Calgary’s Stampede Wrestling with his signature moves and gift of the gab.

The gutsy Sardar and his family are the subject of a new Canadian documentary film, ‘Singhs in the Ring’, directed by another Punjabi expat, Akash Sherman, which premiered at the 2025 Calgary International Film Festival in September.

The Great Gama and his unparalleled achievements remain central to the namesake’s story — the adoption of the name a testimony to the wrestler’s enduring legacy.

Born into a wrestlers’ family of Punjabi-Kashmiris in Jabbowal village of Amritsar in 1878, Ghulam Mohammad Baksh Butt — the Great Gama — could do unreal things at the age of 22. He could lift a stone weighing 1,200 kg up to his chest and walk around effortlessly. The stone can now be seen in the company of European paintings, Mughal-era miniatures, an Egyptian mummy, and a blue whale skeleton at the Baroda Museum and Picture Gallery in Sayaji Baug, Vadodara.

Gama’s iconic hasli — a 95-kg customised disc-shaped collar worn around the neck by the legendary wrestler while doing squats and push-ups for strength training — is now part of the memorabilia at the National Institute of Sports (NIS), Patiala. Wrestlers in the national camp make it a point to see the hasli first thing upon arriving at the museum. For them, it is a symbol of mental and physical strength, and the Great Gama an embodiment of reality turning into a myth.

In his book ‘Nation at Play: A History of Sport in India’, political scientist and author Ronojoy Sen writes, “Wrestling can claim to have the longest lineage among Indian sports if one goes back to the epics and medieval texts. It is also the only sport besides hockey in which India won an Olympic medal in its early years as an Independent nation. There was a definite connection between wrestling and the efforts of physical regeneration in early twentieth-century India. Wrestlers like the legendary Gama enjoyed the patronage of different princes and was regarded as a ‘world champion’ during his playing days. Others like the Bengali wrestler Jatindra Charan (Gobor) Guha self-consciously touted wrestling and physical culture as a means to nation-building.”

Generation after generation has tried to recreate the Gama myth and ended up falling short. But in this eternal endeavour to reach the heights of Gama Pehalwan, they have been able to etch their names into the annals of Indian wrestling history.

In ‘God’s own country’, the champions of Gatta Gusthi, a form of sandpit wrestling, are bestowed with the title of Kerala Gama. Every wrestler, established or budding, aspires to win the title at least once in his lifetime.

In Haryana’s wrestling circles, if a wrestler worth his salt has to throw a ridicule at a bully, the first challenge would be — ‘Ke Gama hai tu?’ (You think of yourself as Gama?)

Vadodara wrestler Ghulam Mohammed, aka ‘Chhota Gama’, was a bit different in masculinity. A national champion who had never lost a duel in his career accepted the challenge of the middle-aged Hamida Banu, India’s first woman professional wrestler, in 1954. Banu had thrown the gauntlet declaring, “Defeat me and I will marry you.” The Vadodara wrestler, perhaps realising that win or lose, it is going to be a losing proposition, withdrew citing ethical reasons.

In faraway Canada, meanwhile, Gadowar Singh Sahota, having done well in amateur wrestling for years after migrating from Powadra, Jalandhar, in 1963, realised his career was not moving ahead in professional wrestling. The 5’10” tall wrestler, who tipped the scales at 102 kg, was then promoted as a baddie — one who cheats, does bad things in the ring, and breaks the rules.

As soon as the expat — who backed himself with taking up the stage name ‘Gama Singh’ — would enter the ring, the heat would naturally turn up, with fans chanting: “Go back Paki, Go back Paki”. Sahota, now 72 and well settled as a realtor in Calgary, recounts, “There was no option but to be the villain. There was a lot of racism back then. In those days, while walking down the streets, you could feel the hate. I chose to go with the flow rather than fight it.”

In his two decades of professional wrestling career, Gama Singh won six Stampede Wrestling British Commonwealth Mid-Heavyweight Championships and Tag Team Championship three times. He says he was the most hated wrestler and the leader of the Karachi Vice stable in Calgary’s Stampede Wrestling, which also included expats Makhan Singh, Vokhan Singh and Rhonda Singh, among others.

The Punjabi expat community still remembers Gama Singh’s signature moves — the Camel Clutch and Dropkick, performed specially to excite the crowd early in a match. Promoters reserved his antics on the microphone for the last.

Gama Singh also dabbled in the popular World Wrestling Federation (WWF) from 1980 to 1986, but found it was taking a toll on his family life. “It was 21 days on the road (South Africa, Germany, Japan, the US and the Caribbean) in a month with only three off-days. I had married a Puerto Rican girl who did not speak English. It was very tough on her with no one to talk to, so I chose family over money,” he says.

‘Singhs in the Ring’ director Akash Sherman says, “It is a generational story about how Gama Singh and his son, Raj Singh Sahota, made a name for themselves in Stampede Wrestling in Calgary. Inside the ring, he performed as a villain, but outside, he was a good guy who earned his living by his hard work and made a name for himself in professional wrestling with his talent. When it came to choosing between money and his family, he chose his family. We are looking to release the film in India shortly.”

Gama Singh’s legacy in professional wrestling is being carried forward by his son Raj Singh, a known name in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA). However, it was Gama Singh’s nephew Yuvraj Singh Dhesi, aka Jinder Mahal, who won the WWE Championship in 2017.

Sherman says the Punjabi community connects with the Singhs naturally, “Of course there was Dara Singh but he would come off and on. Gama Singh was a constant presence in the ring in those years.” Since then, Dalip Singh Rana, aka The Great Khali, the first Indian-born WWE World Heavyweight Champion, Tiger Jeet Singh and Bhupinder Gujjar have been among the most successful Punjabi pro wrestlers.

Former Indian chief national coach PR Sondhi, who runs his own wrestling academy in Phagwara after retirement, says, “Wrestling is innate to Punjabis. Whether they live in Punjab or in foreign countries, the sight of two wrestlers fighting out always entices them. It is this passion for the sport which will never die in their hearts. The atmosphere might not be good here for now, but it does not take time for things to change.”

Coach Jitender Dalal, who has trained the likes of Olympics medallist Bajrang Punia, explains the craze for professional wrestling, “Every country has its own form of wrestling which is popular there. In western countries, professional wrestling is very popular where it is viewed more as entertainment rather than a competitive sport. Performers obviously get more money as compared to traditional wrestlers here, which helps them eke out a living. It is the choice that they make in their life in the end.”

For Gadowar Singh Sahota, the choice of ‘Gama Singh’ as his stage name was easy to make — the story of Gama Pehalwan inspires generations not because he was an invincible wrestler, or Rustam-e-Hind or ‘world champion’, but by virtue of being a cultural icon whose enduring legacy of strength and determination is written with hard work and sacrifice.

Professional wrestling brought him fame and money in Canada, but what Gama Singh is really proud of is not having taken drugs and choosing a close-knit family life over financial gains. ‘Singhs in the Ring’ is a tribute to that tenacity — and to Gama Pehalwan, where it all started.