Om Puri

Om Puri (born October 18, 1950, Ambala, Punjab [now in Haryana], India—died January 6, 2017, Mumbai, Maharashtra) was an Indian actor who was noted for his compelling performances in a wide range of roles in Hindi, Punjabi, British, and American films. Puri received the Padma Shri, India’s fourth highest civilian honor, in 1990.

Early life and acting debut

Puri’s father worked in the Indian railways and the army. Puri originally aspired to a career in the military, but he became interested in theater while attending Khalsa College in Patiala, Punjab, India. He gained experience onstage after joining a local theater company, Punjab Kala Manch, and he later earned a degree (1973) from the National School of Drama in New Delhi. He also studied at the Film Institute of India (now the Film and Television Institute of India) in Pune, Maharashtra. In 1976 Puri made his big-screen debut in Ghashiram Kotwal (“Police Officer Ghashiram”), the film version of the popular 1972 play of the same name by Indian playwright Vijay Tendulkar.

Rise to prominence in Bollywood

Following his debut Puri garnered critical acclaim for his roles in a number of art-house productions that delivered powerful social commentary. He was directed by some of India’s most distinguished filmmakers. In 1980 he starred in Govind Nihalani’s drama Aakrosh (“Outrage”). His portrayal of an oppressed laborer wrongfully accused of having murdered his wife earned him a Filmfare Award for best supporting actor. Puri won the National Film Award for best actor for his work in Shyam Benegal’s Arohan (1982; “Ascent”), which depicts the struggles of a poor tenant farmer (played by Puri) and his family. In 1983 he was cast in Kundan Shah’s Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro (“Let it Be, Friends”), a dark comedy about corruption. In 1984 Puri won his second National Film Award for best actor for his portrayal of an honest police inspector beset by the corruption of others in the film Ardh Satya (1983; “Half Truth”), directed by Nihalani. In 1984 Puri appeared in Goutam Ghose’s Paar (“Crossing”), an examination of rural poverty and oppression, and T.S. Ranga’s Giddh (“Vulture”), a story of a couple’s fight against predatory practices threatening girls in their village. His other notable films from the 1980s include Nihalani’s Aghaat (1985; “Blow”) and Ketan Mehta’s Mirch Masala (1987; “Chili Spice”).

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Puri began appearing in more commercial films during the 1990s and 2000s. He was frequently cast in the role of an officer of the law, including in such films as Ghayal (1990; “Wounded”), Droh Kaal (1994; “Age of Treason”), and Gupt (1997; “Hidden”). In 2003 he played a police inspector in the critically acclaimed crime drama Maqbool (2003), an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, in which two policemen (Puri and Naseeruddin Shah) function as the Weird Sisters. He was cast as an officer of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in Don (2006), a role he reprised in the film’s sequel, Don 2 (2011).

Puri also appeared in diverse roles in other films during these years. Among his notable performances were those in the dramas In Custody (1994), in which he portrayed a professor of Hindi in pursuit of an interview with an Urdu poet, and Maachis (1996; “Matchsticks”), in which he appeared in the role of an extremist operating during the separatist movement in the 1980s in Punjab. Puri was also a part of a few hit comedies—he played the cunning employee of a businessman in Chachi 420 (1997; “The Trickster Aunt”); a rough-around-the-edges man eager to retrieve loaned money so that he can marry off his sister in Hera Pheri (2000; “Monkey Business”); and a street-smart dairy farmer who assumes the identity of a dead man for financial gain in Malamaal Weekly (2006; “Wealthy Weekly”). His other prominent credits include roles in the sociopolitical Rang De Basanti (2006; “Paint Me Saffron”); the potboiler Singh is Kinng (2008); the drama Delhi-6 (2009); the adventure drama Bajrangi Bhaijaan (2015; “Brother Bajrangi”); and the family drama A Death in the Gunj (2016). In 2009 Puri received the Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award.

International films

Aside from Bollywood projects, Puri acted in several British productions. In 1982 he appeared in a brief but intensely moving scene in the Academy Award-winning biopic Gandhi, by British director Richard Attenborough. Other notable British movies include My Son the Fanatic (1997), about a cab driver worried by his son’s embrace of Islamic fundamentalism, and the comedy drama East Is East (1999), for which he earned a British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) nomination for best lead actor. In 2004 Puri was made honorary Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for his contributions to the British film industry. He later appeared in West Is West (2010), the sequel of East Is East, and the historical drama Viceroy’s House (2017).

Puri also appeared in Hollywood films alongside some of the biggest stars in the industry, including Patrick Swayze in City of Joy (1992), Jack Nicholson in Wolf (1994), Michael Douglas and Val Kilmer in The Ghost and the Darkness (1996), and Tom Hanks in Charlie Wilson’s War (2007). In 2012 Puri appeared in The Reluctant Fundamentalist, in a supporting role as the father of the protagonist, a Pakistani man suspected of kidnapping an American colleague. In 2014 Puri starred in The Hundred-Foot Journey, in which he and Helen Mirren played the owners of competing restaurants in a small village in southern France. Puri earned praise for his portrayal of a man who has been displaced from his native India.

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Television work

Puri starred in various television roles throughout his career. He was cast in the role of a Dalit man in Satyajit Ray’s television movie Sadgati (1981; “Deliverance”), which explores the issue of caste discrimination. In 1988 he appeared in the television series Tamas (“Darkness”), based on Bhisham Sahni’s eponymous novel about the devastating consequences of the partition of India in 1947. His other significant roles were in the television series Bharat Ek Khoj (1988–89; “Discovery of India”), Kakaji Kahin (1988; “Where is Kakaji?”), Mr. Yogi (1989); and Kirdaar (1993–95; “Role”).

Puri also appeared in a few British television series, such as the period drama The Jewel in the Crown (1984), based on Paul Scott’s 1966 novel of the same name; White Teeth (2002), adapted from Zadie Smith’s 2000 novel of the same name; Second Generation (2003), a modernized rendition of Shakespeare’s King Lear (1608); and Canterbury Tales (2003), adapted from Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales (c. 1387–1400).