Amrish Puri - National Cinema

National Cinema

Hindi

In 1971 he appeared in his first film, Prem Pujari although the first film he had signed for was Reshma Aur Sheraaa which was released in 1971. This was followed by many villain or supporting roles in numerous art films such as Shyam Benegal's Nishant, Manthan, and Bhumika and Suraj Ka Satvan Ghoda. He also appeared in Govind Nihalani's film, Party in 1984.

Amrish Puri grew to became a staple of Hindi films in the 1980s playing mostly villainous roles, and attracting the most acclaim for his work in the 1987 hit film Mr. India, directed by Shekhar Kapur. He played an egotistical international super-villain, Mogambo, who frequently refers to himself in the third-person, expressing satisfaction at the actions of his underlings with the phrase, Mogambo khush hua (Mogambo is pleased). Since then the Mogambo catchphrase has become one of the best recognized lines in Hindi Cinema.

He also went on to play many positive supporting roles, including his famous role as Baldev Singh, the conservative father who eventually lets his daughter marry her love instead of being forced into an arranged marriage, in the Bollywood blockbuster Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge (1995). Other positive roles include Group Captain Varghese, a Malayali officer in the Indian Air Force based film Vijeta, an ailing idealistic father in Ghatak: Lethal. He was a kind-hearted American businessman in Pardes (1997) and a genial grandfather in the films Chori Chori Chupke Chupke and Mujhe Kuch Kehna Hai. He is also known to play a strict old man in comedy films like Jhooth Bole Kauwa Kaate, where he played a retired cop and Muskurahat where he played a retired judge.

His last films included Kisna: The Warrior Poet and Kachchi Sadak, which were released some time after his death.

Kannada

He acted in some Kannada films during the early days of his career. He played the protagonist role in a black & white off beat Kannada film Kaadu directed by Girish Karnad.He also acted in some other mainstream films.

Malayalam

He starred as the sadistic jailor in Kalapani with Mohanlal.

Punjabi

He is best known in Punjabi cinema for his role as the landlord villain Joginder Singh in the legendary film Chan Pardesi (1980). He also starred as the villain Zalam Singh in the religious Punjabi film Sat Sri Akal (1977). After twenty years, he returned to Punjabi cinema to make a brief appearance as the Sufi Saint in the acclaimed film Shaheed Uddham Singh (2000).

Telugu

He also appeared in Telugu films such as Jagadeka Veerudu Athiloka Sundari, Major Chandrakanth, Aditya 369, Kondaveeti Donga, Aswamedham, Aakhari Poratam etc.

Tamil

He appeared in the Tamil film Thalapathi (1991), directed by Mani Ratnam, opposite Rajnikanth and Mammootty, Tamil and Malayalam superstars respectively. After Thalapathi, Amrish Puri made his second and last appearance in the Rajinkanth's film Baba (2002) in which he played the role of an evil tantrik who helps politicians and other evil elements to succeed in their hideous schemes.