The Story of an Actor

After much ado and much washing of dirty linen in public, Om Puri's biography, 'Unlikely Hero: Om Puri' was released on Monday evening in Mumbai by Amitabh Bachchan. The biography which was written by the actor's wife Nandita, suddenly seemed to spring into limelight for all the wrong reasons.

What suddenly made news was Om Puri's sexual escapades, leading to a storm in the actor's household. But all now seems to be well within the Puri household, with the electronic media being made the villain of the piece. The biography describes Om's roots in Ambala, his childhood and then his subsequent years at the FTII. But it seems that confessions seemed to be the need of the hour and Om also confessed to the crucial role played by two more women in his life, one of them being his ex wife Seema Kapoor. But it was an evening which saw a lot of apologies being bandied about. For those who came in late, Om's wife was interviewed on a television show about the contents of her book and that is when Om's early sexual escapades came tumbling out. The actor, who was not in Mumbai when this happened, was understandably very upset and lashed out at his wife in the media. Of course, all is now well with the actor forgiving his wife and blaming the media for creating this storm. Girish Karnad was the surprise guest on the occasion, which saw Bachchan reading out excerpts from the book. Incidentally, besides the above mentioned salacious details, the book documents the early struggles of Om in his bid to become an actor and talks about the spark of talent in him which was visible since childhood. An unnecessary controversy was created about an aspect of the life of Om Puri, which is hardly relevant to his fans who know him as a great actor.