Born on October 18, 1950 at Ambala to a Punjabi family, Om
Puri, was an actor, who appeared in mainstream commercial, Pakistani, Hollywood,
independent and art films.
His father worked in the Railways and in the Indian Army. Ashe
had no birth certificate or records, his family was unsure of his date and year
of birth.However, his mother told him he had been born two days after the Hindu
festival Dussehra.
When
he began his schooling, his uncle chose March 9, 1950 as his "official"
birthday. However, as an adult when he moved to Mumbai, Puri looked up when
Dussehra was celebrated in 1950, toestablish his date of birth as 18 October.
Graduating from the Film and Television Institute of India,
Pune, he was also an alumnus of the 1973 class of National School of Drama where
cine celebrity Naseeruddin Shah was a co-student.
Puri worked in numerous Indian movies, as well as many films
produced in the United Kingdom and the United States.
He made his film debut in the 1976 Marathi film Ghashiram Kotwal,
based on a Marathi play of the same name by Vijay Tendulkar. It was directed
by K. Hariharan and Mani Kaul in cooperation with 16 graduates of the FTII.
Puri claimed that he was paid "peanuts" for his best work. Along with
Amrish Puri, Naseeruddin Shah, ShabanaAzmi and Smita Patil, he was among the
main actors who starred inwhat was then referred to as art films such as Bhavni
Bhavai (1980), Sadgati (1981), Ardh Satya (1982), Mirch Masala (1986) and Dharavi
(1992).
He
was critically acclaimed for his performances in many unconventional roles such
as a victimized tribal in Aakrosh (1980)(a film in which he spoke only during
flash-back sequences); Jimmy's manager in Disco Dancer (1982); a police inspector
in Ardh Satya (1982), where he revolts against lifelong social, cultural andpolitical
persecution and for which he got the National Film Awardfor Best Actor; the
leader of a cell of Sikh militants in Maachis(1996); as a tough cop again in
the commercial film Gupt in 1997;and as the courageous father of a martyred
soldier in Dhoop (2003).
In 1999, Puri acted in a Kannada movie A.K. 47 as a strict
police officer who tries to keep the city safe from the underworld it became
a huge commercial hit. Puri's acting in the movie was memorable. He rendered
his own voice for the Kannada dialogues. In the same year, he starred in the
successful British comedy film East is East, where he played a first-generation
Pakistani immigrant in the north of England, struggling to come to terms with
his far more westernised children.
His
international career took off as early as 1982 when he featured in a small role
in Oscar-winning film "Gandhi". It also set the stage for him to explore
more on foreign shores -- his British films were "My Son the Fanatic",
"East Is East" and "The Parole Officer", and his Hollywood
movies included "City of Joy", "Wolf", "The Ghost and
the Darkness" and "The Hundred-Foot Journey".
The actor, who had more than 100 films to his credits, was
also honoured with Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award of India, in
1990 and two National Film Awards, during his acting career that stretched for
more than four decades. In 2004, he was made an honorary officer of the Order
of the British Empire for services to the British film industry.
On the personal front, Om Puri tied knot with Seema Kapoor
in 1991, the sister of actor Annu Kapoor, but it survived
only eight months. And in 1993, Om Puri married Nandita Puri, a journalist whom
he is having a son named Ishaan. But again, while he had a glorious journey
in the film world, his personal life went through turbulence. In 2013, his wife
had filed a case against him, alleging domestic violence. They separated, leaving
him with only visitation rights to their son, Ishaan.
Om Puri was frank and blunt about his views -- and just last
year, he faced the brunt of it when a police complaint was filed against him
for his comments that were found to be insulting to Indian soldiers. In 2015,
he spoke on the issue of cow slaughter in India. In 2012, he had landed in a
bit of a soup after he called Naxals "fighters not terrorists".
But Om Puri remained fearless till the end -- in his works
and his words.