Amrish Puri Birthday

Bollywood Actor Amrish Puri was born 22 June 1932.

Amrish Puri Family

He was born in Lahore, Punjab in a Khatri family of Nihal Singh Puri and Ved Kaur.

He had four siblings, elder brothers Chaman Puri and Madan Puri (both of whom were also actors), elder sister Chandrakanta, and a younger brother, Harish Puri.

His first cousin of the actor and singer K. L. Saigal.

Amrish Puri Brother

Puri first came to Mumbai following the footsteps of his elder brothers- Madan Puri and Chaman Puri. They were already established actors known for playing villainous roles.

Amrish Puri Photo

Amrish Puri History

He failed his first screen test, and instead found a job with the Employees’ State Insurance Corporation Ministry of Labour and Employment (ESIC).

At the same time, he started performing at the Prithvi Theatre in plays written by Satyadev Dubey.

Amrish Puri Actor

He eventually became well known as a stage actor and won the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1979. This theatre recognition soon led to work in television ads and eventually to films at the relatively late age of 40.

Amrish Puri First Movie

His first movie was 1970 movie called Prem Pujari.

Amrish Puri Biography

Puri went on to work in Hindi, Kannada, Marathi, Hollywood, Punjabi, Malayalam, Telugu and Tamil films. Though he was successful in many regional films, he is best known for his work in Bollywood cinema.

Through the 1970s, Puri often worked in supporting roles, usually as the henchman of the main villain. People noticed him in the 1980 super-hit movie Hum Paanch in which he played the main villain.

After that, he started getting cast as the main villain in other movies. In 1982, Puri played the main villain, Jagavar Choudhary in the Subhash Ghai super-hit film Vidhaata.

That same year, he again played the main villain, JK in the movie Shakti starring two legends- Dilip Kumar and Amitabh Bachchan. Next, in 1983, Subhash Ghai again cast him as the main villain, Pasha in the hit movie Hero.

Puri regularly featured in subsequent Subhash Ghai films.

Puri reigned supreme in villainous roles in the 1980s and 1990s. In those decades, there was hardly any Bollywood film that did not feature Puri as a villain. His dominating screen presence and baritone voice made him stand out amongst the other villains of the day.

In villainous roles, Puri is best remembered as “Mogambo” in Mr. India, “Jagavar” in Vidhaata, “Thakral” in Meri Jung, “Bhujang” in Tridev, “Balwant Rai” in Ghayal, Barrister Chadda in Damini and “Thakur Durjan Singh” in Karan Arjun.

People highly appreciated his comic role in Chachi 420, that he acted alongside Kamal Haasan.

Amrish Puri Indiana Jones

International audiences knew him for his roles as khan in Richard Attenborough’s Gandhi (1982) and as the main antagonist Mola Ram in Steven Spielberg’s Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984).

He shaved his head for the role, and it created such an impression that he kept his head shaved. His bald look gave him the flexibility to experiment with different looks as a villain in subsequent movies.

Puri and Spielberg shared a great rapport and Spielberg often said in interviews: “Amrish is my favorite villain. The best the world has ever produced and ever will!”

Amrish Puri Wife

He met and fell in love with his wife Urmila Divekar while he was working with an insurance firm.

Amrish Puri Son

The Couple Has a son Name is Rajiv And Has One Daughter Name is Namrata.

Amrish Puri Last Movie

His last film was Kisna: The Warrior Poet. The film was released a few days after his death. He appeared in over four hundred movies.

Amrish Puri Death Date

He died on 12 January 2005.

Amrish Puri Death Cause

He was suffering from myelodysplastic syndrome, a rare kind of blood cancer. He underwent invasive brain surgery for his condition after his family admitted him to the Hinduja hospital on 27 December 2004.

His condition required frequent removal of the blood accumulated in the cerebral region of the brain and after some time he slipped into a coma shortly before his death around 7:30 a.m on 12 January 2005.

Amrish Puri Dialogues

He played the evil Mogambo, who encouraged his underlings with the phrase, “Mogambo khush hua”. The phrase became very popular and remains one of the most famous dialogues till date in the industry.