Producer Boney Kapoor has remembered legendary actor Amrish Puri on his 88th birth anniversary. Amrish Puri had played the iconic villain Mogambo in Mr India and also starred in an earlier film, Hum Paanch, both produced by Boney Kapoor.
“That was the time when Pran sahab and Premnath ji were top-rated villains, and also taken in prominent character roles. Amrish ji was working in theatre at that time and though he had done some very good films with the likes of Shyam Benegal where he was appreciated a lot, he had not got his due in the industry,” says Kapoor.
Interestingly, Amrish Puri was signed for Rs 40,000 for Hum Paanch and Kapoor had promised him Rs 10,000 as bonus if the film succeeded. Eventually the film became a hit and Puri got Rs 50,000 as fee.
“For the film Hum Paanch, Amrish ji understood the nuances of the character from Bapu (director) and also added his improvisation for the look. The red shawl that he wore was from the film Ponga Pandit. The picture of the sun on the shawl was symbolic of power that he thought would add to the character of a zamindaar,” he says, adding, “while Hum Paanch was being shot, I told him that his fee would be Rs 2.5 to 3 lakh post the film.”
When it came to casting for Mogambo in Mr. India, the makers wanted a new villain who could become cult after this character like Amjad Khan in Sholay or Kulbhushan Kharbanda in Shaan.
The auditions were done for two months and few of the most popular artists known for playing villains also approached the makers but they couldn’t find their Mogambo. Producer Boney Kapoor, writer Javed Akhtar and director Shekhar Kapoor then agreed that no one can play the character better than Amrish Puri. The rest, as they say, is history.