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Om Puri

One of South Asian cinema's most prolific, popular and respected actors, Om Puri worked with nearly every great Indian director since the mid-'70s in a diverse career which saw him champion the art house, embrace Bollywood and flirt with Hollywood, all with a quiet dignity. A graduate of New Delhi's National School of Drama, Puri made his on-screen debut in the acclaimed adaptation of Marathi play "Ghashiram Kotwal" (1976) and went onto become a permanent fixture on the Indian art film scene, appearing in such celebrated classics as judicial satire "Aakrosh" (1980), didactic fable "Bhavni Bhavai" (1980) and cop drama "Ardh Satya" (1983). But frustrated by the lack of money and lead roles, Puri decided to pursue the mainstream in the mid-'80s, going on to star in television serial "Kakaji Kahin" (Doordarshan, 1988), land roles in box-office hits "Ghayal" (1990) and "Gadar: Ek Prem Katha" (2001) and deliver compelling performances in Western films such as "My Son The Fanatic" (1997), "East Is East" (1999), "The Hundred-Foot Journey" (2014) and "Viceroy's House" (2017). His sudden death from a heart attack on January 6, 2017 at the age of 66 was mourned around the globe.