Amrish Puri Birth Anniversary: 5 Interesting Facts About The Legendary Actor That Will Baffle You
Amrish Puri is one of the best villains that Indian Cinema has ever seen. Be it a suave baddie or wicked gangster, he was class apart. On his birth anniversary today, here're five facts you may not be aware of him.
'Mogambo, khush hua' is one of our favourite dialogues from Mr India. We all have used it at some point in our lives to say it with arrogance and elegance that we are pleased. But it wouldn't have had such an impact on us if it had not been mouthed by our devilishly fantastic actor Amrish Puri. He was perhaps one of those actors who managed to break out of the stereotype of being a flashy villain seamlessly. His character roles in movies like Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, Ghatak, Gardish, are unmatchable. His way of portraying a character should be taught in film schools. Even Steven Spielberg had said, "Amrish Puri is the best villain world has ever produced and will ever be!" Funny Memes and Jokes Trending on Amrish Puri’s Old Picture From Koyla Would Make The Late Actor Say ‘Mogambo Khush Hua’
But not many know about the man behind those outlandish vicious characters in Vishwatma, Koyla or Karan Arjun. Here're five such facts that we could dig up about him.
# First-time failure
Amrish Puri landed in Mumbai to be an actor as his brother Madan Puri was already an established name. But he failed his first screen test and had to take up a job with ESIC.
#Debut at 39
Puri had to struggle a lot to fulfill his dream of becoming an actor. He did a Government job and also theatre on the side. He got his big break at the age of 39. He had once said in his interview, "Those weren’t easy years… recognition was hard to come by and I had a family to support. I took on every villain’s role that came my way." So negative roles didn't happen by choice but we are glad it did or we would have missed out on it.
#No Steven Spielberg
We told you about what Spielberg's assessment was of Puri's talent. But there's a history behind it. The actor had rejected the director's movie Indiana Jones: Temple Of The Doom because he wasn't comfortable with the role of a corrupt priest heavily into occult practices. But the director was persistent and eventually Puri gave in.
#Pay for talent
Amrish Puri walked out of one of producer N N Sippy's movies because the latter was not ready to pay his sum. The movie had gotten delayed and by then, Puri's remuneration had seen vast increments. He had said in an interview with Rediff, "I have to get what my due is. I do not compromise on my acting, do I? So why should I accept less? As for the Sippy film, I was signed long back, with a promise that work on the movie would start in a year. It is three years now, and my market rate has risen. If he cannot pay me that much, I cannot do his film, right?"
#An apprehensive Mogambo
Puri wasn't sure how to play the character of Mogambo in Mr India. He asked the director for tips and Shekhar Kapur said, "You have to play Shakespeare's role for 10-year-old kids." We all know what happened after that.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 22, 2020 12:36 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).