Om Puri has passed away

Om Puri has died aged 66. The actor suffered a heart attack at his residence in Mumbai early on Friday.

He appeared in many mainstream commercial Indian, British, and American films, as well as independent films and art films.

He made his film debut in the 1976 Marathi film Ghashiram Kotwal, based on a Marathi play of the same name by Vijay Tendulkar. He was among the main actors who starred in art films such as Bhavni Bhavai (1980), Sadgati (1981), Ardh Satya (1982), Mirch Masala (1986) and Dharavi (1992).

In 1999, Puri starred in A.K. 47 as a strict police officer who tries to keep the city safe from the underworld—it became a huge commercial hit. In the same year, he starred in the successful British comedy film East is East, where he played a first-generation Pakistani immigrant in the north of England, struggling to come to terms with his far more westernised children.

Puri had a cameo in Gandhi (1982, directed by Richard Attenborough). In the mid-1990s, he diversified to play character roles in mainstream Hindi cinema, where his roles are more tuned to mass audiences than film critics. He became known internationally by starring in many British films such as My Son the Fanatic (1997) and The Parole Officer (2001). He appeared in Hollywood films including City of Joy (1992), opposite Patrick Swayze; Wolf (1994) with Jack Nicholson; and The Ghost and the Darkness (1996) opposite Val Kilmer. In 2007, he appeared as General Zia-ul-Haq in Charlie Wilson’s War, which stars Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts.

He most recently starred in The Hundred-Foot Journey alongside Dame Helen Mirren.

Source: Twitter