Amrish Lal Puri (22 June 1932 – 12 January 2005) was an Indian actor, who was an important figure in Indian theatre and cinema.
He worked with notable playwrights of the time, including Satyadev Dubey and Girish Karnad. He is remembered for playing iconic villainous roles in Hindi cinema as well as other Indian and international film industries.
To Indian audiences, he is the most remembered for his role as Mogambo in Shekhar Kapur’s Hindi film Mr. India, and to Western audiences he is best known as Mola Ram in Steven Spielberg’s Hollywood film Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Puri won two Filmfare Awards for Best Supporting Actor.
Puri was one of the most successful villains in Bollywood.
He started performing at the Prithvi Theatre, in plays written by Satyadev Dubey. He eventually became well-known as a stage actor and won the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award. This theatre recognition soon led to work in television ads and eventually to films at the relatively late age of 40.
His dominating screen presence and baritone made him stand out amongst the other villains of the day.
He acted in more than 500 movies in his entire career. His work will always keep entertaining us.