Om Puri - Awards, Best Movies, TV Shows, Biography, Birthday, Career, Age

Profile Summary 

Table Of Content

• Biography
• Age
• Death
• Childhood
• Education
• Family
• Wife
• Career
• Top 5 Movies of Om Puri
• Career Timeline
• Awards
• Controversy
• 9 Interesting Facts About Om Puri

Biography

Om Prakash Puri was an Indian actor who was born on 18 October 1950 and passed away on 6 January 2017. He was known for his roles in mainstream commercial Hindi films as well as Bengali, Kannada, English, Punjabi, and one Telugu film. In addition, he starred in several independent and art films and several films from other countries' cinemas. He is widely acknowledged as being among the most talented actors in the history of cinema. In 1990, he was awarded two National Film Awards for Best Actor, two Filmfare Awards, and India's Padma Shri, which is the country's fourth-highest civilian award. An honorary Officer of the Order of the British Empire was bestowed upon him in the year 2004.

He is best known for his author-backed roles in films such as Aakrosh 1980, Arohan 1982, and Ardh Satya 1983, as well as his roles in television films such as Sadgati 1981 and Tamas 1987, his roles in Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro 1983 and Chachi 420, and his roles in a number of mainstream commercial films throughout the course of his career. He worked together on a number of projects with the director Shyam Benegal as well as Govind Nihalani. In addition, Puri was a part of non-Indian productions in the United States of America, Pakistan, and the United Kingdom. In the 1990s, he had roles in the films My Son the Fanatic 1997 and East Is East 1999, both of which earned him a nomination for the British Academy Film Award BAFTA for the category of Best Actor in a Leading Role.

Age

Om Puri was born on October 18, 1950. He was 66 years old as of 2017. His Zodiac sign is Libra.

Death

Om Puri suffered a heart attack on the 6th of January, 2017, at his home in Andheri, which is located in the city of Mumbai. He passed away at the age of 66. 

Childhood

Om Puri was born in Ambala, Punjab, into a Punjabi Hindu family. His father, Rajesh Puri, served in the Indian Army in addition to working on the railways. Because Om Puri's parents did not receive a birth certificate and did not keep any records, his family was unable to determine when he actually was born. However, his mother claimed that he had been born two days after the Dussehra festival, which is celebrated by Hindus. It was his uncle who gave him the date of March 9, 1950, as his official birthday when he first started school. However, when Puri was an adult and had moved to Mumbai, he researched the dates that Dussehra was celebrated in 1950 in order to determine that his birth date was October 18th.

Om Puri's family was financially struggling when he was growing up. His father, who worked for the railway and was accused of stealing cement, was arrested when he was only six years old, and he spent the next six years in jail. Because of this, their family was forced to seek shelter elsewhere. Om Puri's brother, Ved Prakash Puri, supported the family by working as a coolie, and Puri himself supported the family by working in a local tea shop, doing odd jobs, and collecting coal from nearby railway tracks. Shanti, a maidservant, raised both him and his brother after their parents passed away.

Education

After the completion of his primary education, Om Puri enrolled in the National School of Drama in Delhi in order to study acting in the theatre. Naseeruddin Shah, a fellow student at NSD who later went on to become Puri's lifelong friend and he also suggested that Puri enroll at the Film and Television Institute of India in Pune. 

Family

Om Puri was born in Ambala, India, to a family of Punjabi Hindu origin. His father, Rajesh Puri, served in the Indian Army in addition to working on the railways. Om Puri also has a brother named Ved Puri who worked as a coolie.

Wife

Seema Kapoor

In 1991, Puri got married to the director and writer Seema Kapoor, who is also the sister of the actor Annu Kapoor. However, the couple only remained married for a total of eight months before divorcing.

Nandita Puri

He got married to the journalist Nandita Puri in 1993, and they went on to have a child together who they named Ishaan. Unlikely Hero: The Story of Om Puri was the title of the biography that Nandita wrote about her husband and published in 2009. 

Career

Om Puri's first movie was a children's movie called Chor Chor Chhup ja. During this time, in order to make ends meet, he also worked at the Actors Studio, where he had students who would go on to become future actors such as Gulshan Grover and Anil Kapoor. After that, Puri worked in a great number of films originating not only in India but also in the United Kingdom, the United States, and a number of other countries.

Puri made his debut in the mainstream film genre in the Marathi film Ghashiram Kotwal, which was released in 1976. The film was adapted from a Marathi play written by Vijay Tendulkar with the same name. It was directed by K. Hariharan and Mani Kaul in collaboration with a total of 16 FTII alumni. He has asserted that he was paid peanuts for the best work he ever did. During that time period, films like Bhavni Bhavai 1980, Sadgati 1981, Ardh Satya 1982, Mirch Masala 1986, and Dharavi 1992 were considered to be examples of what are now considered to be art films. He was one of the main actors who starred in these films, along with Amrish Puri, Naseeruddin Shah, Shabana Azmi, and Smita Patil.

It was his performance as a victimized tribal in the film Aakrosh 1980, Jimmy's manager in the film Disco Dancer 1982, a police inspector in Ardh Satya 1982, for which he won the National Film Award for Best Actor, a humble husband in the film Seepeeyan 1984, Vinod's uncle in Zamana, the leader of a cell of Sikh militants in Maachis 1996, as a tough cop again in the

Top 5 Movies of Om Puri

Aakrosh

PlayAakrosh is a legal drama film that was released in 1980 in India and was written and directed by Govind Nihalani. Vijay Tendulkar was the film's screenwriter. The film, which featured Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri, and Amrish Puri in pivotal roles, was met with widespread praise upon its release. It went on to win the Golden Peacock Award for Best Film at the 8th International Film Festival of India, in addition to the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi and a number of other honors.

After that, Nihalani became well-known for his bleak and unsettlingly realistic depictions of human angst in other seminal alternative films such as Ardh Satya and Tamas. These films were among his most successful. Aakrosh is one of the sixty films that have been identified as having a significant impact on the Indian film industry over the past sixty years. 

The protagonist of the tale is a peasant who struggles to make ends meet by working as a day laborer despite being subjected to exploitation by wealthy landowners and their foremen. The foreman raped his wife, Smita Patil, and then falsely accused him of committing a crime that he had not actually committed. His wife was overcome by guilt and eventually takes her own life.

After the passing of his father, the authorities place him in handcuffs and accompany him to the burial site so that he can carry out the funeral rites. As he stands by the funeral pyre that is currently ablaze, he observes the foreman casting lustful glances at his younger sister who is still in her prepubescent years. In an effort to spare his sister the same misfortune that he and his wife had to endure, he takes an axe into his own hands and executes his sister. He believes that she is destined to live out her life as a helpless victim. After committing such a hopeless and tragic act, the man is now in a hopeless and tragic state, and he screams repeatedly into the sky.

The film was a vicious satire on the corruption in the judicial system and the victimization of the underprivileged by the able and powerful. It was allegedly based on a true incident that was reported on page 7 of a local newspaper. Noted playwright Vijay Tendulkar, who had previously written Shyam Benegal's Nishant 1974 and went on to write Govind Nihalani's next surprise breakaway hit, Ardh Satya 1983, is the author of Aakrosh, which is a part of the series of works that are based around explorations of violence and were written by Tendulkar.

In a scene, the victim is shown to be so traumatized by excessive oppression and violation of his humanity that he does not utter a single word and only bears a stunned look for almost the entirety of the film; however, later on, he uses the same violence as a tool to express his own sense of violation and rage. It is a device that is very similar to Andrei Tarkovsky's showing of the icons in brilliant color at the end of his three-hour black-and-white film Andrei Rublev. The first time we hear the victim's voice is in a flashback, as he futilely attempts to save his wife. The second time we hear the victim's voice is at the end of the movie, and it is at this point that we hear it for the second time.

Arohan

Shyam Benegal's 1982 Hindi film Arohan stars Victor Banerjee, Om Puri, and Dipti Bhatt in the lead roles. The story of the movie starts with Hari Mondal a poor farmer who lives in Giripur, a remote Bengal village in Birbhum district, with his wife, two sons, brother, old widowed aunt Kalidashi, and her daughter Panchi. In the mid-1960s, the Naxalbari uprising is uniting oppressed Bengali farmers with communist and socialist youth.

Hari and his brother Bolai are Borgadars who plow and harvest Jotdar land. The young jotdar Bibhutibhushan Ganguly has lost his father and wants to use new laws on his Borgadars to maximize his profit while the poor farmer suffers. His estate agent Karmakar keeps the villagers scared and him in charge. Hari borrows from Bibhutibhushan for his sister's wedding. Bibhutibhushan asks him to not register his Bargadari rights with the government in exchange. Hari is too naive and conditioned by generations of servitude and oppression to realize that his basic rights are being squandered, but his younger brother Bolai isn't happy serving the landlord. Bolai protests repeatedly but is rebuked by his brother and Karmakar. Bolai loves Panchi.

As the communist movement grows, the Jotdar makes Hari Mandal a paid laborer on his own land and fires his brother. Bolai hates village life and moves to Calcutta for work. He joins a wagon-breaking gang and becomes a political goon for the city's candidates. Panchi and her mother move to Calcutta with help from strangers who offer jobs. While Kalidashi works as a cook and servant in a middle-class home, her daughter is seduced by a pimp employed by a middle-aged Marwari businessman who makes her his mistress. Panchi enjoys her new life with cosmetics, silk sarees, and a huge bed. Before bedding her, the businessman asks if she has ever slept on a bed.

With the help of a sympathetic village master and a free lawyer, Hari sues the Jotdar in district court. The district magistrate is sympathetic and just, but the Jotdar beats Hari, burns his house, and steals his bullocks, leaving him defenseless. Hari continues until the High Court rules in favor of the Jotdar. After years of court battles and a Panchayat election in which Hari defeats Karmakar to become the village Panch, he receives his Bargadari certificate at the cost of a broken leg, a house, and a lost brother.

Hari unsuccessfully searches Calcutta for Bolai before returning home. He never learns about his Calcutta-bound relatives. Bolai gets life in prison for committing a political murder, Panchi is thrown out of Sethji's flat when she gets pregnant and is forced to abort the baby, which worsens her health and drives her insane, and Kalidashi dies while working in her master's house, likely over a broken heart at her daughter's condition, having seen her as a mistress and a vagabond on the road. Hari dies a few months later in 1980.

Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro

PlayJaane Bhi Do Yaaro is an Indian Hindi-language satirical black comedy film released in 1983 under the direction of Kundan Shah and produced by NFDC. It features an ensemble cast that includes Naseeruddin Shah, Ravi Baswani, Om Puri, Pankaj Kapur, Satish Shah, Satish Kaushik, Bhakti Barve, and Neena Gupta, and is a dark satire on the rampant corruption in Indian politics, bureaucracy, news media, and business.

The film directed by Kundan Shah was named the Best Debut Film of 1984 by the Indira Gandhi Awards. The 2006 India International Film Festival included the film in their NFDC Retrospective.

The plot of the movie revolves around Vinod Chopra and Sudhir Mishra, professional photographers who open a photo studio in Bombay's prestigious Haji Ali neighborhood. After a disastrous start, the editor of Khabardar gives them work. They accept and work with editor Shobha Sen on a story about corrupt Municipal Commissioner D'Mello and unscrupulous builder Tarneja. They discover that Tarneja's rival builder Ahuja is also involved in this deal to get D'Mello's contract to build 4 flyovers. Next, the duo must sneak into Tarneja's house and divide her and Ahuja so they can compromise on D'Mello's contracts. Vinod and Sudhir convince Tarneja's assistant Ashok, posing as Albert Pinto, that Ahuja is Shobha's friend and wants to cheat him. Tarneja's secretary Priya arrives with Assistant Municipal Commissioner Srivastav to inform them that D'Mello has awarded the contracts to someone else.

Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro was inspired by Michelangelo Antonioni's 1966 English-language film Blow-Up, in which a photographer unwittingly photographs a murder. Antonioni Park was named after Blow-Up. Film directors Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Sudhir Mishra, who assisted Kundan Shah, named the lead characters Vinod Chopra and Sudhir Mishra. Vidhu Vinod Chopra oversaw production, while Sudhir Mishra co-wrote and directed the film. The Mahabharata play's climax featured Vidhu Vinod Chopra as Dushasana. In the first half of the film, a group of journalists interviews Tarneja, played by Pankaj Kapoor. He played a photographer.

Sadgati

Satyajit Ray's 1981 Hindi TV film Sadgati is based on Munshi Premchand's short story. Om Puri played the character of Dukhi, while Smita Patil portrayed Jhuria. Mohan Agashe appeared as The Priest, Gita Siddharth as The Wife, and Richa Mishra as Dhania. Ray called this poor Dalit drama a deeply angry film not the anger of an exploding bomb but of a bow stretched taut and quivering. The Film Sufi's reviewer gave the film 3.5/5, saying, The Brahmin and his wife are not evil people, but they are comfortably situated inside a system that perpetuates injustice – and they take advantage of it for their own selfish gains. Dukhi and Jhuria, who remain, must suffer. 

Even as an outcast, Dukhi believed in his society. Sadgati's filming matches the story's tone. Dulal Dutta, Ray's film editor, and Soumendu Roy's cinematography are outstanding. As usual, Ray's moody, low-key music sets the tone. Sadgati is 40 years old today but its message is still relevant, wrote Shaikh Ayaz of The Indian Express.

Ardh Satya

Ardh Satya is a film that was released in 1983 and was directed by Govind Nihalani. Vijay Tendulkar wrote the film's screenplay. The short story Surya by S. D. Panvalkar served as the inspiration for the film, which also featured dialogue written by Vasant Dev.

In the critically acclaimed drama about the police, Om Puri plays the role of Anant Velankar, a police officer who is battling the evils that are all around him as well as his own weaknesses. In addition to them, Amrish Puri, Smita Patil, and Sadashiv Amrapurkar are featured in the movie, and the Marathi poet Dilip Chitre contributed to the film's theme poem. The poem was written by Dilip Chitre and served as the inspiration for the title of the film.

There were a total of four producers involved in the film's production; two of them owned processing laboratories, one dealt in garments, and the fourth was an industrialist. Nihalani made this statement in an interview with India Today: Though it's still an uphill task to find backers, 10 years ago it wouldn't have been possible at all. When Nihalani was looking for a new actor to play the role of Rama Shetty, writer Tendulkar convinced him to watch the play Amrapurkar instead of continuing his search. Hands Up was the name of the play that was performed in Marathi.

In the opening scene, police officer Anant Welankar and literature professor Jyotsna Gokhale meet at a party. Sub-Inspector Anant works for the Bombay Police Department. They seem to get along well despite some ideological disagreements at the beginning, and their friendship eventually develops into something more romantic.

Anant works hard and with a lot of energy, and he has a lot of ideas about his work. However, it's a tough job. The local mafia, the police, and the corrupt politicians are all intricately intertwined. Anant is a good guy at heart, but he is low on the police department's totem pole and has little say over local affairs.

Anant is summoned to a meeting with local mob boss Rama Shetty after the arrest of three relatively minor criminals. Rama Shetty tries to get Anant and his men out of there, but Anant is having none of it. Shetty has made the choice to keep an eye on Anant.

A short time later, everything spirals out of control after a petty thief is arrested for the theft of a cheap radio. Drunk, angry, and frustrated, Anant is at his wits' end. While still under the influence of alcohol, he brutally beats the thief and accuses him of stealing the legitimate Rights of Others.

Career Timeline

Filmography

PlayPuri's first movie was a children's movie called Chor Chor Chhup ja. During this time, in order to make ends meet, he also worked at the Actors Studio, where he had students who would go on to become future actors such as Gulshan Grover and Anil Kapoor. Om Puri appeared in the 1999 Kannada movie A.K. 47 playing the role of a strict police officer who works hard to protect the city from the criminal underworld. The movie was a huge commercial success. The performance that Puri gives in the movie is unforgettable. He used his own voice for the Kannada dialogues that he rendered. In the same year, he played the role of a first-generation Pakistani immigrant in Northern England in the critically acclaimed British comedy-drama film East is East. In the film, he struggled to come to terms with the fact that his children were much more Westernized than he was.

The critically acclaimed film Gandhi from 1982, directed by Richard Attenborough, featured a cameo appearance by Puri. Around the middle of the 1990s, he began branching out into playing character roles in mainstream Hindi cinema, where his roles are more tuned to mass audiences than they are to film critics. Through his roles in a number of British films, such as My Son the Fanatic 1997, East Is East 1999, and The Parole Officer 2001, he gained recognition on an international scale. In Hollywood films such as City of Joy 1992, Wolf 1994, and The Ghost and the Darkness 1996, he starred opposite Patrick Swayze, Jack Nicholson, and Val Kilmer, respectively. In the film Charlie Wilson's War, which starred Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts, he made an appearance as General Zia-ul-Haq in the year 2007.

He has appeared in Hindi television serials such as Kakkaji Kaheen 1988, which roughly translates to Uncle Says, as a paan-chewing Kakkaji, which was a parody on politicians, and Mr. Yogi 1989, in which he played a suave Sutradhaar who enjoys pulling the protagonist's leg. Both of these roles were comedic roles. These two serials demonstrated Om Puri's versatility as a comedic actor, and they were both enjoyable to watch. His performance in Govind Nihalani's television film Tamas 1988, which was adapted from a Hindi novel of the same name, was met with widespread acclaim from the film's reviewers. In Hindi films such as Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro, which achieved cult status, he played comedic roles. Subsequently, he appeared in Chachi 420 1997, Hera Pheri, Chor Machaye Shor 2002, Deewane Hue Pagal, Chup Chup Ke, Kismet Connection, Malamaal Weekly 2006, and Oh My God. Priyadarshan and Kamal Haasan both used him frequently in their films during his career.

His notable roles in commercial Hindi films included Drohkaal, In Custody, Narsimha, Ghayal, Mrityudand, Aastha, Hey Ram, Pyar Toh Hona Hi Tha, Farz, Gadar, Lakshya, Dev 2004, Rang De Basanti, Yuva, Singh Is Kinng, Mere Baap Pehle Aap, Billu, Kyunki, Lakshya, Dabangg, Bhaji in Problem, Khap, Bajrangi Bhaijaan, Ghayal Once Again. In the 2009 film, Road to Sangam, Puri portrayed the character of Mohammad Ali Kasuri. In the film The Hangman, which came out in 2010, he had a role. He appeared in the Indian action movie Don 2 in the year 2011.

In addition, he had a role in a few episodes of the television series Aahat during the second season, which was broadcast on the Sony channel between the years 2004 and 2005. Other notable appearances on television include Bharat Ek Khoj, Yatra, Mr. Yogi, Kakaji Kahin, Sea Hawks, Antaral, and the second season of Savdhaan India.

In 2014, he had a role in the comedy-drama The Hundred-Foot Journey, in which he was cast opposite Helen Mirren. He was working on the Marathi film 15 August Bhagile 26 January when he passed away in January 2017. His death occurred in that month. After his death, several of his finished films were released, including Viceroy's House and Tubelight, among others.

Television Shows

Awards

• 2009-Filmfare Awards-Lifetime Achievement Award 

• 2000-BAFTA-Best Actor In Leading Role for the film East is East

• 1999-Filmfare Award-Best Supporting Actor for the film Pyaar Toh Hona Hi Tha

• 1998-Filmfare Award-Best Performance In A Comic Role for the film Chachi 420

• 1998-Filmfare Award-Best Supporting Actor for the film Gupt: The Hidden Truth

• 1997-Filmfare Award-Best Supporting Actor for the film Maachis

• 1992-Filmfare Award-Best Performance In A Negative Role for the film Narsimha

• 1984-Filmfare Award-Best Actor for the film Ardh Satya

• 1984-National Film Award-Best Actor for the film Ardh Satya

• 1984-Karlovy Vary International Film Award-Best Actor for the film Ardh Satya

• 1982-National Film Award-Best Actor for the film Arohan

• 1981-Filmfare Award-Best Supporting Actor for the film Aakrosh

Achievements

• 1990: Padma Shri – India's fourth highest civilian award.

• 1998: Grand Prix Special des Amériques at the Montreal World Film Festival for exceptional contribution to cinematographic art.

• 2004: Honorary Officer of the Order of the British Empire for services to The British Film Industry.

Controversies

Allegations of domestic violence

Nandita Puri, who was previously married to Om Puri, leveled allegations of physical abuse against him in 2013. She went to the police and filed a complaint, in which she stated that she and Om Puri had gotten into a fight in the flat that they shared in Versova and that shortly after the fight, he began physically tormenting her.

When he supported Pakistani actors

One of the last projects that Om Puri worked on was a Pakistani film called Actor in Law, which he starred in alongside Pakistani actors Mehwish Hayat and Fahad Mustafa. This is something that many people are unaware of.

Almost immediately after the attack in Uri 2016, which took place in 2016, India placed a ban on Pakistani actors working in the Indian film industry. Om Puri fought against the move.

Puri participated in a discussion that was broadcast on a national news channel, during which he voiced his unwavering support for the artists who came from the opposite side of the border and stated that he would keep working with them.

When he spoke out against the beef ban

Many people voiced their opinions on various social media platforms in 2015 when the state of Maharashtra passed a law prohibiting the slaughter of bulls and bullocks as well as the consumption of their meat. The matter was being discussed at length on each and every news network, and Om Puri was not the type of person to keep his or her thoughts to herself. Because he opposed the regulation, he received a great deal of criticism. According to the story, he said the following at the time:

Hypocrites were among those who advocated for a ban on the slaughter of cows in the country. We make dollars off of the export of beef to other countries. I want to know if they are going to take action against people eating beef in every region of the world. It shouldn't be a problem at all for Muslims who live in India to consume beef if they so choose.

Allegedly having sexual relations with his maid

Om Puri was alleged to have engaged in sexual activity with his housekeeper when he was only 14 years old. According to the reports, the age of the house helper at the time was fifty-five. According to Om Puri's ex-wife Nandita, who wrote a biography about him in 2009, he had a thing for the house help and even engaged in physical activities with her. Nandita also claimed that Om Puri had a thing for house help.

9 Interesting Facts About Om Puri

• Om Puri initially desired to join the Indian Army because his father was a soldier.

• During his time as a student, he held a part-time job as a laboratory assistant, for which he was paid 125 Indian Rupees INR per month.

• It was during his time in college that he first became interested in performing on stage, and after that, he began to take part in various competitions for stage acting. A well-known Punjabi playwright named Harpal Tiwana saw him perform in one of these competitions and was impressed enough by his work to extend an invitation to join his theatre group along with an offer of one hundred and fifty Indian rupees INR.

• When he joined NSD, he was a vegetarian, but Naseeruddin Shah convinced him to change his diet and become a non-vegetarian.

• Om Puri jumped across their table at the restaurant where Naseeruddin Shah's former friends were stabbing him with a knife, stopped the attacker to prevent further attacks, took Shah to the hospital in a police van, and ultimately saved his life.

• In 1975, he made his debut in the film Chor Chor Chhup Ja, which advocated for the protection of children's rights and earned him a salary of three thousand Indian Rupees INR.

• As recognition for his contributions to the British film industry, he was awarded the title of Honorary Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the year 2004.

• In the Hindi adaptation of The Jungle Book 2016, he provided the voice for the character Bagheera.

• He worked in more than 15 different languages.