The veteran actor Om Puri is no more this Friday as he met with a major cardiac arrest. We still don’t believe that the 66-year-old is not with us. He had worked for over three decades in the entertainment industry. The actor though was seen in the Sunny Deol’s Ghayal Returns but Tubelight would be his last film, which will hit the theatres this Eid 2017. Well, not many would know about some lesser known facts about the actor, which are jotted as under:
1). Multiple ventures at different industries
Om Puri appeared in all the mainstream films – Hindi, Pakistani, British as well as Hollywood cinema. He made his film debut with the Marathi film- Ghashiram Kotwal, which was based on a Marathi play of the same name. The film was directed by K. Hariharan. Puri also acted in a Kannada movie, A.K. 47.He also featured in some Punjabi movies.
2). He was the classmate of Naseeruddin Shah
The late Om Puri was very close to Naseeruddin Shah. They were classmates in the National School of Drama. Not many people would know that Puri was a vegetarian when he joined the school but turned non-vegetarian because of Naseer. If there was something other than cinema that they loved discussing, then it was food. Puri used to love having brain curry with Naseer.
3). He had complexity
Om Puri revealed on Anupam Kher’s show that he had complexity issued. His friend Naseeruddin had studied from a convent school, while he came from a Punjabi Medium school. This has simply caused Om to have complexity issues during his early years at the NSD. However, he schooled himself and later went on to do more than 20 English movies thus overcoming the complexity issues.
4). Complexity kept on adding up
His unconventional looks also added to his complexity. He thought he was not good looking enough to become an actor and hence he joined Film and Television Institute of India in Pune just to enter the Hindi film industry. “To get into films, the kind of looks you were supposed to have for the Hindi film industry, we did not have…Fat noses have no place in the Hindi film industry unfortunately,” Puri said. However, he later went on to become one of the finest actors of his times.
5). Worked in Hollywood much before the contemporaries
Much ahead of Priyanka Chopra, Aishwarya Rai and Deepika Padukone, Om Puri registered his name in International cinema. In the mid-1990s, Om Puri starred in many British films such as My Son The Fanatic, East Is East and The Parole Officer. He also appeared in Hollywood films including City Of Joy opposite Patrick Swayze; Wolf alongside Jack Nicholson and The Ghost and the Darkness opposite Val Kilmer. He also shared screen space with veteran British actress Helen Mirren in The Hundred-Foot Journey.
