Bonded with Naseeruddin Shah over food: Om Puri

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Posted: 10 years ago
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Bonded with Naseeruddin Shah over food: Om Puri

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Shah and Puri were classmates in the National School of Drama.Shah and Puri were classmates in the National School of Drama.
Press Trust of India | New Delhi | Posted: September 27, 2014 4:34 pm

Besides carving a niche while playing together some of the pivotal roles in Hindi cinema, Bollywood greats and friends Naseeruddin Shah and Om Puri bonded over food and loved having dishes like brain curry.

"It was Naseer who turned me into a non-vegetarian," said Puri while mentioning their gastronomical journeys in old Delhi during the launch of Shah's memoirs "And Then One Day" in the national capital last night.

Shah and Puri were classmates in the National School of Drama and have been friends for more than 40 years now. But few know that Puri was a vegetarian when he joined NSD.

"One day Naseer and I were having a meal together and he asked me to try some meat. When I refused, he insisted that I should eat my rice with some gravy from the non-veg curry that he was eating. I tried and liked it. Then on another day he made me taste a small piece of meat and I liked that too. Eventually he made me a non- vegetarian too!"

The veterans have acted together in iconic films like "Aakrosh", "Droh Kaal", "Sparsh", "Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro", "Ardh Satya", "Paar", "Mandi" and "Albert Pinto Ko Gussa Kyon Aata Hai".

At the launch, the book, published by Hamish Hamilton, was introduced by Chiki Sarkar, Publisher of Penguin Random House.

A conversation between Shah and naturalist-author Pradip Krishen followed during which Shah spoke about his book, his life and journey.
Shah also read out the passage from the book in which he talked about standing at his father's grave. Even while reading what he had already penned, his eyes turned moist and there was an unusual silence in the auditorium.

Shah's actor wife Ratna Pathak Shah was among a host of other people present at the launch.


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Posted: 10 years ago
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He wrote something against Shabana Azmi. I would love to read that.
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Posted: 10 years ago
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Originally posted by: NigelMolesworth

He wrote something against Shabana Azmi. I would love to read that.


Shabana and I over the decades have worked together in more films than you can shake a script at. Her dramatic abilities are too well documented to need a testimonial from me so I won't go there, except to say that but for the somewhat smug reverence she has for her own acting and her tendency to perform with background music playing in her head not to mention the eccentric preference for her right profile over her left (or is it the other way around?)

I have never found her to be anything but a consummate professional ... Playing off her has always been non-competitive, full of mutual regard and trust and, therefore, a great joy... Never once while working have I seen her at the mercy of her moods or indulging in displays of temperament; something I, on the other hand, have often been guilty of.

I had looked up to her ever since she had conducted a class in speech in our first year at the Film Institute, and receiving her encouragement and approval now was a great high. Many of my personal favourites among the films I have done are the ones with Shabana; films it was generous of her, a mainstream star, to consent to do with me - a nobody...

Despite spending so much time together, we have somehow escaped becoming close on a personal level, which I am inclined to think is not a bad thing. We do consider each other to be friends, but visit each other's homes on an average once every two years or so. The roles in our real-life relationship are not at all defined so when we meet there are no expectations, and when we approach two characters at work it's like drawing those people on a clean slate, the baggage of things personal does not intrude.



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