Steven Spielberg was ‘amazed’ Amrish Puri was doing 22 films at the same time, came to India to audition him: ‘You are terrific human being’

Amrish Puri played the villain in Steven Spielberg's 1984 film Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. The Hollywood director was thoroughly impressed by Puri.

By: Entertainment Desk

New Delhi | June 9, 2023 12:09 PM IST

3 min read

Amrish Puri in Indian Jones and the Temple of Doom.

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Veteran actor Amrish Puri played many iconic characters in his lifetime and his role as Mola Ram in Steven Spielberg’s Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is considered one of his most popular roles in the West. Amrish was an extremely busy actor when Steven’s team zeroed him down for the role and was working in almost 22 films at the time. When Spielberg learnt the same, he traveled to India to audition Puri and finalised him for the role.

Amrish’s son Rajeev Puri shared this story with ETimes in an interview and said that Steven was “absolutely amazed” at the fact that an actor could be doing 22 films at a time so he flew to India to see Amrish. “What I am told is that that was the only time that Spielberg came to India to audition an actor because he was curious to meet dad. He met him and he signed the movie over here,” he said.

Rajeev shared that Steven was so impressed by Amrish’s bald look that he asked him to keep the same look for Temple of Doom. “That’s what dad told me that Steven told me ‘he loves this look’,” shared Rajeev. After the shoot wrapped, Spielberg signed a handwritten note to Puri which the family has preserved till date. “To my best villain, you are unique in all the world as a bad guy and in the real world we live in. You are a terrific human being. I loved every minute of our work together, can’t wait to work with you again,” the note read.

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He shared that after the success of Temple of Doom, Amrish got various offers from the West but he chose to work in the Indian film industry. “His agent over there asked him to sign (other offers) but dad was very devoted to his Indian film industry. He said ‘no, I want to be over here because by God’s grace, I am doing very well over here and I want to be here and do movies for my country,” Rajeev recalled.

Amrish Puri starrer Gadar is re-releasing in theatres this Friday.

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