Veteran Om Puri discusses playing the late Pakistani General in 'Charlie Wilson's War' and why Indian actors can never really make it in Hollywood with Soumyadipta Banerjee

Om Puri likes to swim against the tide but tell him that and he will tell you that he is just being himself.

“When I am shooting outdoors, you will never find hanging around even for an extra day. Once shoots are over, I am usually the first person to catch a flight home,” says Puri.

The two-time National Award winner admits that his career could have been over 30 years ago when he was auditioning for National School of Drama. “I still remember that day very distinctly when two judges  refused to pass me in the annual test as I didn’t look like an actor in any way. They said I  looked neither like a comedian, a hero nor a villain. One of them said that I would be a failure in Mumbai,” says the actor rewinding down the memory lane.

But it was director Jayaraj and actor Girish Karnad, who chose to disagree with the judges’ panel. “They said that they had given me the highest marks and that people should judge me by my acting skills and not by my looks,” adds Om.

Today, Om is busy completing Priyadarshan’s comedy ‘Mere Baap Pehle Aap’ and Anees Bazmi’s ‘Singh is King’, which has Katrina Kaif and Akshay Kumar in the lead.

“I am very kicked about the movie ‘Charlie Wilson’s War’ (running in the UK and US), which stars Tom Hanks in the lead. I play General Zia-ul-Haq in the movie. The movie has attracted a lot of critical aclaim.  I am also looking forward to Jagmohan Mundhra’s ‘Shoot on Sight’ where I play the character of an Imam (Muslim clergy head),” adds Om.

Talk to him about the increasing Hollywood connection of Indian actors and Om has a point to make. “Nobody will be able to make a cut in Hollywood because none of the scripts are written keeping an  Indian actor in mind. You can make a cameo appearance or a do a character role and that’s it. It’s all because of your skin colour and at the end of the day you are not one of them,” Om signs off.