Om Puri

Om Prakash Puri, (18 October 1950 – 6 January 2017) was an Indian actor who appeared in mainstream commercial Hindi films as well as Malayalam, Bengali, Kannada, English, Punjabi, Gujarati, Telugu, and Marathi films, as well as independent and art films and also starred in several international cinema.

He is widely regarded as one of the finest actors in world cinema.

When he began his schooling, his uncle chose 9 March 1950 as his "official" birthday.

However, as an adult when he moved to Mumbai, Puri looked up when Dussehra was celebrated in 1950, to establish his birth date as 18 October.

Puri came from an underprivileged background.

When he was six years old, his father who was a railway employee was put behind bars on allegations of theft of cement.

This resulted in their family becoming homeless.

To make ends meet, Puri's brother, Ved Prakash Puri, worked as a coolie (railway porter) and Puri worked in a local tea shop, did odd jobs and collected coal from nearby railways tracks to support his family.

He and his brother's children were later brought up by a maid servant, Shanti.

While working, Puri continued to study.

After his primary education, he joined the National School of Drama in Delhi to study theatre acting.

A fellow NSD student who became a long-term friend, Naseeruddin Shah, encouraged Puri to follow him to the Film and Television Institute of India in Poona (present-day Pune).

In an interview with The Times of India, Puri later recounted his family was so poor that he did not have a decent shirt to wear when he joined FTII.

According to Shah, Puri was disappointed by his education at FTII, and also was unable to pay tuition fees—when he became well-known, the institute followed up the debt of ₹280, which Puri refused to pay due to the "impish thrill" of owing them money.

Puri's first film was Chor Chor Chhup ja, a children's film.

During this time, to make ends meet he also worked at the Actors' Studio, where future actors such as Gulshan Grover and Anil Kapoor would be his students.

Subsequently, Puri worked in numerous Indian films, as well as many films produced in the United Kingdom and the United States.

Puri made his debut in the mainstream films genre 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.

He has claimed that he was paid "peanuts" for his best work.

He is best known for his author-backed roles in films like Aakrosh (1980), Arohan (1982), Ardh Satya (1983), television films like Sadgati (1981) and Tamas (1987), light-hearted roles in Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro (1983) and Chachi 420 (1997) and several mainstream commercial films throughout his career.

He had various collaborations with director Shyam Benegal and Govind Nihalani.

Puri also appeared in non-Indian productions in the United States, Pakistan and Britain.

Along with Amrish Puri, Naseeruddin Shah, Shabana Azmi and Smita Patil, he was among the main actors who starred in what 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); Jimmy's manager in Disco Dancer (1982); a police inspector in Ardh Satya (1982), for which he got the National Film Award for Best Actor; a humble husband in 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 commercial film Gupt in 1997; and as the courageous father of a martyred soldier in Dhoop (2003).

Puri had a cameo in the highly acclaimed film Gandhi (1982, directed by Richard Attenborough).

He won two National Film Awards for Best Actor, two Filmfare Awards and India's fourth highest civilian award Padma Shri in 1990.

In the 1990s, he appeared in My Son the Fanatic (1997) and the comedy drama East Is East (1999), receiving a nomination for the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role.

Puri was born to a Hindu Family in Ambala, Haryana.

His father, Tek Chand Puri, worked on the railways and in the Indian Army.

Puri's parents received no birth certificate and had no records, so his family was unsure of his birth date.

But his mother told him he had been born two days after the Hindu festival Dussehra.

In the mid-1990s, he diversified to play character roles in mainstream Hindi cinema, where his roles are more tuned to mass audiences than film critics.

He appeared in Hollywood films including City of Joy (1992), opposite Patrick Swayze; Wolf (1994) with Jack Nicholson; and The Ghost and the Darkness (1996) opposite Val Kilmer.

He became known internationally by starring in many British films such as My Son the Fanatic (1997), East Is East (1999) and The Parole Officer (2001).

In 1999, Puri acted in a Kannada film 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 film is memorable.

He rendered his own voice for the Kannada dialogues.

In the same year, he starred in the successful British comedy-drama film East is East, where he played a first-generation Pakistani immigrant in Northern England, struggling to come to terms with his far more westernised children.

In 2004, he was made an honorary Officer of the Order of the British Empire.