Late veteran actor Amrish Puri is one of the greatest actors in Indian cinema. He ruled on the silver screen with his captivating, unique style of acting for decades. In most of his films, the actor played a villain, but he received a lot of love from fans. Today, let’s take a look at some interesting lesser-known facts about his life.
Amrish Puri, popularly known as Mogambo, left his government job to pursue his acting career. However, no one knew, his decision would make the actor a popular name all over the world. Amrish Puri was the cousin of KL Saigal, a well-known singer. Amrish Puri came to Mumbai in the 1950s to try his luck in Bollywood but failed. He got rejected from his first screen test.
But he managed to get a job in the Employees State Insurance Corporation. He worked there as a clerk for nearly 21 years. But he did not stop following his passion for becoming an actor. He started fulfilling his hobby of acting in the theatre. He used to work in Prithvi Theatre in the plays written by Satyadev Dubey. After a long struggle, Amrish’s acting got recognition. At the age of 40, he made his entry into the film industry.
Within a short period, Amrish Puri started dominating the screen with his baritone voice, characteristic villainous gaze and military-style body language. Amrish Puri came into the limelight after appearing in the film Reshma Aur Shera in 1971. The crime drama film was a huge hit and her character Rehmat Khan received a lot of accolades from the viewers. Later, he acted in many popular movies like DDLJ, Nagina, Karan Arjun, Ilaaka and Damini, to name a few.
Amrish Puri made a huge fan base after appearing in the movie Mr India and his dialogue Mogambo Khush Hua became so famous in people’s minds that the actor became famous by this name. According to reports, the popularity of this film also increased his remuneration and Amrish joined the list of highest-paid actors in the industry. In some movies, Amrish Puri was even paid more than the hero of the film.
Amrish Puri worked in more than 450 films in his career and portrayed two extreme spectrums of characters- from a supervillain to a loving and protective father. Amrish made a name for himself and became famous, but he didn’t let his son Rajeev Puri work in the film industry. He did not want his son to struggle for many years, according to reports. In an interview with the BBC, Amrish Puri’s son Rajeev revealed that at that time, the condition of Bollywood was not good, so his father told him not to go there. “Then I joined the Merchant Navy," Rajeev shared.
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