Portraits: Amrish Puri – ‘Mogambo Khush Hua’

With a massive repertoire of 400 films between 1967 and 2005, Amrish Puri is one of the most successful character actors Indian cinema has ever seen. Especially he excelled in the archetypal villain roles and turned Mogambo of Mr India and Bauji of Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge into iconic characters, immortalising lines like “Mogambo khush hua” (Mr India) and “Jaa Simran, jee le apni zindagi” in DDLJ.

He was a known face in Hollywood and in the theatre circles. He won the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1979. Playing Khan in Richard Attenborough’s Gandhi (1982) and Mola Ram in Steven Spielberg’s Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) won him recognition in Hollywood. He won the Best Actor Award for his role as Mahesar Dalal in Shyam Benegal’s Suraj Ka Satvan Ghoda at the Sydney Film Festival (1994) and picked up three Filmfare awards for Best Supporting Actor (Meri Jung, Ghatak and Virasat).

LnC pays tribute to the legendary actor Amrish Puri on his 87th birth anniversary with a portrait painting by Saurabh Turakhia.