Empire's Children

Shobna Gulati

Best known for her roles in 'Coronation Street' and 'Dinner Ladies', actress Shobna Gulati was born and raised in Oldham. Although the roles she plays are often, as she describes, 'salt of the earth northern girls', she also trained in classical Indian dance.

Shobna's ancestors come from the Punjab, a region that, since partition in 1947, spans north-western India and modern day Pakistan. Both her mother and father's parents moved to Bombay (modern day Mumbai). Her father was amongst the thousands of doctors who came from Commonwealth countries to Britain at the invitation of the British government in the 1960s.

Like many British Asians today, Shobna's identity is shaped by her family's history in the former British Empire. Wanting to explore how her family has been shaped by the events of the past, Shobna retraced her family's journey from their ancestral home in the Punjab to the big cities of India, and finally to Oldham in Lancashire.