National Award winning Actor, Om Puri, says he has no plans to direct Bollywood films and rued that the powerful medium is being “wasted“.
“It is very sad that such a powerful medium which can help us to grow better is being wasted,” the actor said about the films being churned out by Bollywood.
The actor attended a reading session ‘Unlikely Hero Om Puri’ written by his journalist wife Nandita Puri. The veteran actor released the Malayalam translation of the book titled ’Prathinayakan: Om Puriyude Katha’
The national-award-winning actor, who has been a face of parallel cinema with movies like ‘Ardh Satya’, ‘Mirch Masala and ‘Dharavi’, has no ambition to direct a movie in near future.
“I can direct plays, but not films,” said Puri, who recently finished ‘West is West’, a sequel to ‘East is East’
The film was partially shot in Punjab and in Manchester.
Asked about the Malayalam film industry, the actor said he had worked with late actor Gopi in a Hindi film. Describing Gopi as a “wonderful” actor, Puri said he had given an “electrifying” performance in the film.
The 59-year-old actor said he liked the Malayalam cinema of the seventies and eighties as the conventional and art films were given due importance. Cinema flourished and being a literary state, people appreciated well known directors like Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Shaji N. Karun and Aravindan, who made film of high standards, he said.
Puri said the chapter (in the book) on his childhood was his personal favourite as it was exciting and contained lot of adventure.
“I had a difficult childhood. But I look at it as an adventure. At the age of seven, instead of going to school, I used to collect coal from the railway track to use as fuel. I started going to school at nine,” he said adding from the age of 15, he was on his own.
This is the experience of millions of children in India and third world countries, he said.
On his Hollywood roles, Puri said ‘Jewel In the Crown’ was his first acquaintance with British Television while ‘City of Joy’ opened doors to the west. Puri said he was proud of his roles in British films.
Going down memory lane, Puri said he had rubbed shoulders with Jack Nicholson and Tom Hanks.
Recounting his experience on meeting Nicholson, Puri said he was very ‘nervous’ when he reached the studio. “It was a pleasant experience working with him,” Puri said.
Nandita, who was with him, said the Malayalam translation was the first in any regional language. The Hindi translation of the book would be ready in two months. They are also planning to bring out the Punjabi and Bengali translations of the book.
