Amrish Puri: Bollywood’s popular villain who was fired for his ‘stern look’ early in his career was called ‘the best world ever created’ by director Steven Spielberg | Amrish Puri Bollywood News
On June 22, 2019, the text was read aloud along with a Google Doodle to commemorate the 87th anniversary of a certain person’s birth. The most memorable villain in Indian cinema. Such was the journey of the man who was best at being the worst on screen.
Some might argue that it takes a great villain to make a great hero, but Amrish Puri has taken up that space. And how. With his baritone, big eyes, and twitchy forehead, this veteran actor struck fear into the hearts of heroes, heroines, and fans alike.whether he was Mogambo, Durjan Singh or Baba Bhairo Nath, this theater student Ebrahim Alkazi and Satyadev Dubey made the villains of Bollywood memorable. He created his own brand of villainy. Admiring Puri’s vast canvas as a villain could fill a page, but that’s not all there is to him.
Punjabi-born actors were an anomaly in Bollywood. He traveled a winding road for decades to find his place in showbiz. In 1953, when he took his first screen test at the age of 21, he was reprimanded by the director for his “stern” face and “scary” voice. He says that the director of the film, Devendra Goel, told him, “You will never get a leading role.” Although he was introduced to directing by brothers Madan Puri and Chaman Puri, who were successful in the film industry, no offers were made. Not willing to live solely on his brother’s income in Mumbai, Puri took up a job with the Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC). In addition to that, in 1954, thanks to its “God-given” voice, he was also given a radio spot on All His India Radio.
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“Until 1975, I was an active participant in AIR’s theater and Hawa Mahal programmes.The payment as per government standards was very meager, but it made me a radio listener. “I gained great popularity among people,” Puri said in her autobiography, The Act of Life. Years passed, but the urge to act remained. In 1961 Ebrahim finally found an outlet in him as an actor when he enrolled in Alkazi’s Natya Academy. He said, “If I couldn’t act in a movie, I could just go to the theater.” His father recognized film as a “rude and degrading” profession, but was supportive of his son appearing in stage shows.
Alkazi gave him the lead role in his first play, Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge. He soon came under the tutelage of Satyadev Dubey, whose play Bicho (a Hindi version of Molière’s The Scorpion), in which Puri played the lead role of a servant in the Nawab’s house. His breakthrough film was Dubey’s Anda Yug. His portrayal of Dhritrashtra mesmerized everyone as he did not blink for 15 minutes straight. His experience came in handy when he had to pretend to be dead in Feroz Khan’s Qurbani in a water tank. He became a theatrical wizard with the success of plays like ‘Yayati’, ‘Hayavadhan’ (both scripted by Girish Karnad), ‘Saharam Binder’ and ‘Chap Koot Chal Hai!’ . And in Adhe Adhure, he played four characters.
Puri credited Dubey with everything he learned about acting and emotional expression. He writes in his book: Satyadev Dubey and I am grateful to him for what he has instilled in me in this lifetime. ” In 1967, courtesy of Yash Johar, he was able to appear in front of the camera for the first time. “Yash Johar was coordinating with a foreign producer and introduced me to Alan, the American director of MGM’s TV series ‘The Mayan Adventures’,” Puri said. He appeared in his three episodes of the show and received Rs 2,400, with which money he was able to travel by plane to Mumbai for the first time.
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Thus began Amrish Puri’s journey as a film actor. But despite his rigorous training, theatrical experience, and winning the Best Actor award at the Maharashtra State Drama Competition, his beginnings were anything but heroic. He was first tricked by Dev Anand’s assistant into playing a short role in the veteran’s 1970 film Prem Pujari. He felt “humiliated” and “embarrassed.” After that, he was able to appear in the opening of Ralhan’s Furchul, Sunil Dutt’s Reshma Aur Shera and Chetan Anand’s Hindustan Ki Kasam, but these All became mere additions to his filmography on Wikipedia.
In 1974, Girish Karnad insisted that Puri play Chandra Gowda, an evil village headman who terrorizes those around him, in the Kannada film Kaadu. Despite the film’s producers’ resistance, Girish, who had seen Puri’s performance on stage, remained unfazed, saying, “Find someone exactly like Amrish in the Kannada film industry and I will take him down! ” ‘Kaadu’ was released starring Puri and the world took notice. “‘Kaadu’ was a film that was destined to change my life, career and social status,” Puri said. Shyam Benegal saw his performance and cast him as a zamindar in the critically acclaimed film Nishant (1975). This was followed by Manthan (1976), Bhumika (1977), Aakrosh (1980) and Amrish could not look back at his Puri.
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Even in small roles, the versatile star makes a lasting impression, sometimes outshining the leading roles. Who would have thought that people would think of Mr. India more than the sweet Arun Verma (Anil Kapoor) when they think of Mogambo? Despite his villainous nature, some of his most quotable lines include “Mogambo kush hua!”, “Jaa simran ja, ji le apni zindagi” (DDLJ) and “Itne tukde karunga ki to pechana nahi jayega” (Gadar). It is left behind. Even Hollywood director Steven Spielberg, who hired him to play Mola Ram in 1984’s Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Dead, often told him, “You’re the real devil!” The filmmaker also reiterated in various interviews: “Amrish is my favorite villain. The best thing the world has ever produced and will ever produce.”
His acting skills were not limited to villain roles. He gave mesmerizing performances as the righteous father of Banaras native Sunny Deol in the revenge drama “Ghatak”, the strict and true-to-his-roots patriarch in “DDLJ” and the kind-hearted patriarch in “Virasat”. He equally shone in his comical turn in ‘Chachi 420’. His son Rajeev Puri described him as “a righteous man and a true karmayogi”. He stuck to his principles, even if it meant leaving the movie because it didn’t pay him what he wanted.
In an interview with Rediff, the actor once said why he refused to appear in a NN Sippy movie: You don’t compromise on acting, right? So why should I accept less? People come to see me perform. Since I’m in the movie, the producer is getting money from the distribution company. So, is it wrong to charge producers? Regarding the Sippy movie, I had signed a contract a long time ago and the promise was that the production of the movie would start within a year. It’s been 3 years and the market has gone up. If he can’t pay me that much, I can’t do his movie, right? ”
Puri was a very hard-working actor who never compromised on his work and left everything to the director. Even after he became famous in the film industry, he never had ego troubles with directors.Kuku Kohli played the role of Nageshwar, a don, in his debut film Pool Owl Kaantetold The Hindu, “When I signed Amrish Ji for my debut film, he was already a well-known name. I had my own reservations about him. But to my surprise, he He never had any ego troubles against the likes of Ajay Devgn and Madhu. Being a newcomer, he gets retakes many times, but Amrish ji will take it calmly. I always admire his organizational skills. I was surprised. He didn’t hire a secretary to manage his dating or financial matters. He would manage them himself.”
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Mr. Puri has been highly engaged throughout his career and has worked in multiple languages including Hindi, Punjabi, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and English. But Puri, a family-oriented person, never took work home or discussed movies at the dinner table. He may have played ‘Pyar Ka Dushman’ in many films, but off-screen his love story with wife Urmila Divekar was very Bollywood. The two met at the ESIC office where Urmila supported Puri. Both were too shy to talk to each other. It took Puri six months to approach her. “It was love at first sight for her. I was just fascinated by her presence,” Puri wrote in her autobiography. The two married in January 1959 after a dispute with their Orthodox families and had two children, a son Rajiv and a daughter Namarata.
His children remember him as a larger than life man. His son recalled in an interview with Filmfare: The one who inspired us to speak the truth. He urged us to follow his three P’s: patience, perseverance, and persistence. Dad was particular about nutritious food. Rajiv revealed that his father loved watches and Mercedes-Benz cars, saying, “Every time he went abroad, he would visit showrooms and call me excitedly and say, “Tikhu (my nickname).” ), I bought such a handsome watch!” ‘ Another attraction he had was Mercedes-Benz cars. He kept buying the latest editions. We keep his 1983 model in showroom condition. ”
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Puri passed away on January 12, 2005 after developing a blood disorder (myelodysplastic syndrome) as a result of an accident on the set of the 2003 film Jarl the Trap. “He suffered severe injuries to his face and eyes. He lost blood and had to receive a blood transfusion. I think there was probably something wrong with that, because a few years later he Because he developed a blood disease (myelodysplastic syndrome). It started with weakness and loss of appetite. When he learned that his disease was fatal, he was upset. However, he had He had an iron will. He wanted to project a strong side to the world. He knew that at the age of 72 there was little that could be repaired and his graph was getting worse. ” Rajiv recalled. The actor’s last appearance was in the 2005 film ‘Kisna: Warrior Poet’.
The phrase “They don’t make men like that anymore” fits perfectly with Amrish Puri’s extraordinary charm and his ability to straddle the worlds of commercial and art films. Spielberg’s handwritten notes to Puri document the influence of his art and his stature away from the camera. “To my best villain, you are unique in the world as a bad guy and in the real world we live in. You are an amazing human being. I loved every moment of working with you. ”
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