Om Rajesh Puri is one of the widely noted senior actors in the Indian film industry and he was born on 18th October 1950 in Patiala, Punjab. He is one of the few Bollywood actors to act in mainstream commercial English movies. The alumnus of National School of Drama was also a classmate of renowned actor
Naseeruddin Shah of the 1973 class.
He started his movie career in 1976 with the Marathi film ‘Ghashiram Kotwal’ directed by K.Hariharan. The movie was based on a play with the same name and it got success both commercially and critically. His career graph saw the coming of critically acclaimed art films such as ‘Bhavni Bhavai’, ‘Sadgati’, ‘Ardh Satya’ etc. and he was one of the major stars to do art films at that time along with well-known actors like Naseeruddin Shah, and
Shabana Azmi. His reputation sky rocketed with his unconventional roles in many films during the 80s such as ‘
Aakrosh’ and ‘Disco dancer’. Puri became famous for his versatility and personality, and went on to act in films in many domestic and foreign industries. Be it Hollywood blockbusters like ‘
Gandhi’ or ‘Charlie Wilson’s War’ or regional hits like ‘A.K. 47’, Puri left a unique zeal on every role he did.
If he was known for his personality and his unconventional roles in the movies, he proved the world that he could handle any kind of role with an envious ease with the TV series ‘Kakkaji Kaheen’ and
‘Sutradhaar’ where he did comedy characters. He was honoured by the government of India with Padma Shri award and he also received ‘Order of The British Empire’. He is currently working for the movie ‘
Chapekar Brothers’ in which he will be playing Bal Gangadhar Tilak.
