Amrish Puri

Amrish Puri was a famous Indian film and theater actor. He was one of the most notable villains in Hindi movies of 80’s and 90’s. As a matter of fact, he reigned as a king of negative roles in Bollywood for about three decades. Many critics say that he was one of the amazing actors of Bollywood for all time.

Early Life

Amrish Puri born on 22 July in 1932 at Lahore in Present Pakistan. His family was Punjabi by origin. His father was Lala Nihal Chand Puri and mother was Ved Kaur. He had four brothers and sisters. Puri moved to Simla and studied in B M College in Himachal Pradesh.

Career

Puri started his acting career as a theater performer. He achieved a theater award in 1979 which helped him to develop his film career. He appeared in many Hindi films as well as in the films of other Indian languages. His notable appearance was as outstanding villainous and negative roles in films. His popularity as a villain started when he appeared in the film ‘Hum Paanch’ as a villain in 1980. From that he appeared in many super hit films as villains like ‘Vidhaata’ in 1982, ‘Shakti’ in 1982, ‘Hero’ in 1983, ‘Meri Jung’ in 1985, ‘Mr India’ in 1987, ‘Tridev’ in 1989, ‘Damini’ in 1993 and ‘Karan Arjun’ in 1995. He also acted as a villain against many famous heroes like Shahrukh Khan, Salman Khan, Aamir Khan, Akshay Kumar etc.

He achieved international recognition when he appeared in Hollywood film ‘Gandhi’ in 1982 and ‘Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom’ in 1984. The directors of that films liked him very much as a villain.

Besides negative roles, he appeared also as positive roles in films like ‘Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge’, ‘Gardish’, ‘Pardes’ and ‘China Gate’. He won Filmfare award for best supporting actor and Maharashtra State Gaurav Puraskar.