- Title: Indian actor Om Puri dies at age 66
- Date: 6th January 2017
- Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (FILE – SEPTEMBER, 2016) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF ACTOR OM PURI TALKING TO REPORTER (SOUNDBITE) (English) ACTOR, OM PURI, SAYING: "We always say we give people what they want. That shouldn't be the attitude. Then why don't you give your child what he wants. You always check whether it is good for the child or not. So similarly, your audience is, if you think that you need to develop their taste, then give them something that is tasteful. So that they have better taste." PURI TALKING TO REPORTER (SOUNDBITE) (English) ACTOR, OM PURI, SAYING: "When she arrived on the set, I heard whispers because we were having lunch, that Helen Mirren has come. So I went and fell on my knees and said 'Your highness, accept my salute.' She picked me, hugged me." HALIFAX, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (ORIGINALLY 4:3) (FILE – OCTOBER, 1996) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF SCENE FROM "MY SON THE FANATIC" BEING FILMED WITH CAST MEMBERS OM PURI, STELLAN SKARSGARD AND RACHEL GRIFFITHS (SOUNDBITE) (English) ACTOR, OM PURI, SAYING: "You expect this kind of thing to happen here because there may be certain individuals who are prejudiced, who are racist but then he sums up his own experience and he doesn't find everyone like that. He finds that even in his own community, there may be certain people who are prejudiced so that's how he finds his values."
- Embargoed: 21st January 2017 09:46
- Keywords: Om Puri actor Bollywood Hollywood My Son the Fanatic The Hundred-Foot Journey cinema film movie
- Location: VARIOUS LOCATIONS
- City: VARIOUS LOCATIONS
- Country: India
- Topics: Celebrities,Arts/Culture/Entertainment
- Reuters ID: LVA0015XXZLFR
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: THIS EDIT CONTAINS MATERIAL THAT WAS ORIGINALLY 4:3
Veteran Indian actor Om Puri, who successfully straddled movie careers in Bollywood and the West, died on Friday in Mumbai (January 6).
Puri, 66, suffered cardiac arrest, his friend and actor Anupam Kher told Reuters.
Puri cut his teeth in the 1980s with alternative art cinema that found a niche audience in India, playing several memorable characters that depicted the angst of the times.
He also worked in several Hollywood and British films, including "The Reluctant Fundamentalist", "East is East", and most recently in "The Hundred-Foot Journey", opposite Britain's Helen Mirren.
"He showed that you didn't have to be 'fair' and 'good-looking' to be a protagonist," Saeed Akhtar Mirza, who directed Puri in one of his earliest films, "Albert Pinto Ko Gussa Kyon Aata Hai" (Why does Albert Pinto get Angry?), told Reuters.
"It was just the force of his personality and his performance."
Several Bollywood stars and fans took to Twitter to pay their respects.
"Who dare say Om Puri is no more? He lives through his work," actor Kamal Hassan tweeted.
An alumnus of the Film and Television Institute of India and later, the National School of Drama, the actor's work in Govind Nihalani's "Ardh Satya" (Half-Truth) and later "Aakrosh" (Rage) won him several accolades.
Along with Naseeruddin Shah, Shabana Azmi and Smita Patil, Puri was seen as one of the stars of the alternative cinema movement that contrasted sharply with Bollywood's often crass content.
His distinctive baritone and ability to switch seamlessly between art house, Bollywood, Hollywood and British film made him an international star, one of the few Indian actors to cross over to the West before the likes Irrfan Khan and Priyanka Chopra made the jump. - Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
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