Film on Om Puri’s life

It was Shyam Benegal who planted the idea in Om Puri’s head. And now the actor Om Puri is all set to make a film on his own life.

“Shyam Benegal told me:  I feel my life is composed of many chapters – of hardships, struggle, heartbreak, success and failure,” Om told. Om, who thinks a book would perhaps been a better medium to tell his story, has chosen cinema only because of its reach.

“My mother was the biggest influence in my life. I watched her being physically abused by my father. Every week he’d slap her once or twice. I’d seethe in rage and wonder why my mother took it. Many years later I came to know the reason for my father’s anger. You see, my mother was from a wealthy family. When she inherited her father’s property she refused to take it and preferred to let her brothers have all the ancestral wealth. Her logic was simple. Once she married my father she was no longer her parents’ or her brothers’ responsibility.” the actor told us.

This film would be Om’s “microcosmic homage” to his own existence. Also, he will turn director with the film. Says the actor, I am acting in a Punjabi play. We’ll take the play all over the world beginning with Canada. I want to direct plays.” Om intends to do a stage adaptation of Ibsen’s  The Enemy Of The People.