BOMBAY, 13 January 2005 — Bollywood’s favorite villain Amrish Puri died yesterday in a Bombay hospital from a brain hemorrhage, a hospital official said. He was 72.
Amrish, who suffered from a neurological disorder, was admitted to Bombay’s Hinduja Hospital on Dec. 28 after falling at his residence the day before, said Anupam Verma, hospital administrator.
“He suffered a head injury due to the fall and didn’t really recover,” Verma said.
Amrish had suffered from myelo dysplastic syndrome for the past 10 months. Among other complications, the syndrome stops blood from clotting.
Famous for his role as underworld don Mogambo in the 1989 movie “Mr. India”, Amrish slipped into a coma after a blood clot in his brain. The man everyone loved to hate was one of the first Bollywood stars to successfully cross into Hollywood — he played bad guy Mola Ram in Steven Spielberg’s “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” in 1984. He shaved his hair for the part of the villain Mola Ram in the film and it created such an impression that he kept his head shaved thereafter.
Amrish acted in some 220 Bollywood movies after his 1971 debut in the Hindi film “Reshma Aur Shera.”
Some of Amrish’s best known movies were “Naseeb”, “Ardh Satya”, “Andha Kanoon”, “Shakti”, “Coolie” and “Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge”.
Before joining the Hindi film industry, Amrish acted in Indian theater and did voiceovers for advertising campaigns.
