'Won't work with you': When Sudhir Mishra's quest for perfection irritated Om Puri

Late Om Puri is considered one of the finest actors in the Hindi film industry. The artiste delivered impeccable performances throughout his four-decade career, bagging appreciation galore. One of his impressive performances was in the 1991 movie Dharavi by director Sudhir Mishra. Recently, in an interview, the latter recalled his experiences with the veteran actor Om and praised him, not just for his work, but also for the person he was.

Sudhir Mishra calls actor Om Puri, 'graceful and generous'

Sudhir Mishra first worked with Om Puri on the 1983 film Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron, for which the former was a writer and an assistant director. In an interview with Unfiltered By Samdish, Mishra said, "I worked with Om Puri when I made my third film, I was a young man. I had worked with him as an assistant in Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron and then in 1991, I worked with him (as a director)."

"He was a big guy. He was so graceful and generous. None of these guys were easy. When one says, ‘he was graceful’, it is almost as if they were boring people. Everyone who talks about Irrfan, these days sounds like he was a boring person. He was not. Those were wonderful, ambitious, complicated times. There was a need for money and good work. It was difficult.”

Sudhir Mishra also shared Om Puri was ver adjustable with last-minute changes and even adapt accordingly. “You could tell anything to him, he was graceful, technically perfect. You could provoke him at the last moment and it would be there in the shot. If I’d say, ‘Puri sahab, ek aisa khayal aaya hai’, he would do that on screen. If there was no tripod and you’d request him to spread his legs and stand and then give close-ups, he would do that. He was so technically (sound)", director Sudhir Mishra added. 

The director's films were often set at night, but the shootings at that time were not something Om Puri was fond of. Mishra recalled Om Puri being angry about the night shoots and saying ‘Kya hai yaar? Chal… leave it.’ However, the National Award-winning actor would then agree and then invite the former to his home and feed him 'Bhindi.'

Their last collaboration Dharavi won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi, but the film endured some difficult moments with Mishra's quest for perfection not going down well with Puri.

 “Sometimes you go on and on, make them do difficult things. Like I had placed two cameras in separate vans on the road and asked him to run, stop at markers, then turn, then run again and repeat this four times. He would do it, but if someone is running in heat with slippers on, by the third or fourth time he is bound to get irritated. He would say, ‘Tere Saath Nahi karuga ab aagey, tu bohot zyada karta hai (I won’t work with you anymore, you go to extremes). He was senior also to me", Sudhir added.

Moreover, the filmmaker also revealed that be believed in casting new actors, and that was the reason he did not work with Om Puri.