BHUBANESWAR: Om Puri was an inspiration for many actors from Odisha and the Odia film industry.
City Express caught up with film-makers and actors to know their association with the veteran artiste.
Puri's classmate from the National School of Drama (NSD), Ajit Das recalls him as an extraordinary human being and actor. "During our college days in NSD, he always came across as an extremely polite
and down to earth person. Beating the other charming actors of his time, he made a mark in both Bollywood and Hollywood with his acting skills...something that has not been achieved by many successful actors of today," he says.
Award-winning filmmaker, Nilamadhab Panda, is working on a documentary on Odisha in which Puri had done a voiceover.
"The voiceover was recorded in November. Om Puri ji would make you happy under any circumstances. His amazing range of work and youthfulness inspire us. While working with him, he never made us feel that we were on an assignment.
Instead, he made us feel that the assignment was a fun trip. He had seen Odisha since 1980s and shared his anecdotes about the State while working on the documentary," says Panda, whose documentary is
based on the changing face of Odisha.
Actor Manoj Mishra, who is also an alumnus of NSD, had worked with Puri in the 2004 Hindi drama 'Dev' that was directed by Govind Nihalani. Sharing his fond memories of working with his senior in
the film, Mishra says, "Whenever we met him in the campus or during alumni meets, he used to share stories of his struggle in both parallel and mainstream cinema. He was an inspiration for us." In the Amitabh Bachchan and Fardeen Khan starrer film, while Puri essayed the character of police commissioner Tejinder Khosla, Mishra played the role of Fardeen's friend. Prior to 'Dev', Mishra had got the opportunity to work with Puri in another film 'Zindagi Zindabaad' in 2000.
In the 1979 release 'Shodh', Puri's character of a village youth, who settles in a city, is still etched in the memory in people of Cuttack where the film was shot. Puri played the character of Surendra in the ghost film that was based on a Bengali book, 'Gorom Bhat O Nichhok Bhooter Goppo'. Odia film-maker Basant Sahu met the versatile actor in 1978 while he was in Cuttack to shoot for the film, which was directed by Biplab Roy Chowdhury and produced by Sitakant Misra.
"Puri ji was shooting the film in a Harijan Basti in Cuttack and I could not miss a chance to meet him. I was fascinated by his versatality and discipline. When he came to know that I was also into films, he wished me luck and was very polite. I also met him at an award ceremony recently and he was the same
person then, nice and easygoing."
'Shodh' had won the National Award for Best Feature Film in 1980. Film-maker and actress, Nandita Das was to cast Puri as a character named Toba Tek Singh in her upcoming film, 'Manto', based on the life of iconic Urdu writer Sadat Hassan Manto.
"He was genuine, always at par with whoever he was with, never putting on any airs to look precious. Always rooted to life, firmly on the ground and caring and affectionate to all those around him. In the 20 years I knew him, he hadn’t changed at all in his humanity. Yes, he had aged, put on weight, drank too much and got into hurtful controversies. It is not my place to comment on them or give reasons for it. All I know is that through all his hardships, he didn’t become bitter, just very very sad," she wrote on her Facebook page.
Voicing History
Even today, Om Puri's rich baritone brings alive the story of transformation of King Ashoka from Chandsoka to Dharmasoka, at the Peace Pagoda in Dhauli.
In 2014, the versatile actor had done the voiceover for the Hindi script of light and sound show at Dhauli, which is a 35-minute show describing the glory of Kalinga empire, the Kalinga war and transformation of King Ashoka.
The India Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC), which had implemented the Dhauli project, had also roped in Puri to do the voiceover of light and sound show at the Sun Temple in Konark. "Om Puri ji
was scheduled to record the Hindi voiceover for Konark project on Monday (January 9). We had contacted him earlier this week and he had agreed to do the recording in Mumbai," said ITDC DGM, AK Gupta.
In fact, Puri gave voice to almost all the light and sound shows in Hindi at heritage sites in India. "His voice can be heard in every light and sound project that ITDC implemented in the country, be it in the Cellular Jail in Port Blair or Dhauli Shanti Stupa in Bhubaneswar," Gupta added.