by: Roshmila Bhattacharya

Today when one talks of Mr India the first name that springs to one's mind is undoubtedly Mogambo. "Mogambo khush hua," has become one of Hindi cinema's most repeated lines and the menacing Mogambo with his gleaming bald pate and diabolical game plans ranks second in popularity to only Sholay's Gabbar Singh.

Mogambo made Amrish Puri a part of Hindi film lore but the movie that won him world-wide acclaim was Steven Spielberg's Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. The picture of the high priest with his horned headgear, surrounded by skulls, is imprinted in many minds.

Interestingly, Amrish Puri almost didn't do the presequel to Raiders of the Lost Ark because the film's plot, he felt after reading the script Spielberg had sent him, was no different from that of any regular Hindi masala movie and didn't offer him any challenge. It was Sir Richard Attenborough in whose Gandhi Puri had played a bit role, who convinced him to do the film pointing out that it was Spielberg's technique that made his films special. The rest, as they say, is box-office history. Indiana Jones netted a cool Rs 46 million after a week's run in the US and went on to become one of the top grossing films in Hollywood, flooding Puri with a deluge of offers all of which he thumbed down because they were just variations in the Indiana Jones mould.

 Indiana Jones was a film Amrish Puri was destined to do even though he did his best to play difficult and wriggle out of the project. Catching the eye of the casting directors had been easy. Stills from Aruna-Vikas's Gehrayee in which Puri had played an exorcist and which Dolly Thakore had mailed to Spielberg for him, had won him an immediate audience with Spielberg's casting directors. However, the chance to audition for one of the most-coveted projects going in Hollywood at the time didn't send Puri into ecstasies. He was out on an outdoor schedule at the time and didn't think the Spielberg film was exciting enough to air-dash down for an audition. So he sent a message across to the casting directors that if they wanted him to audition for the role they would have to come to him. He was shocked when they turned up at the location a couple of hours later and made him go through with the audition.

Fifteen days later Puri was in for another surprise when he got a telegram informing that that he had been selected to play this pivotal role in the action adventure. In March, 1983 he met up with Spielberg for the first time to discuss the script and came away unimpressed. He needed Sir Richard to push him into accepting the film but even then he was a reluctant actor in Spielberg's cast who threw his weight around insisting the Hollywood director change his schedule to fit the dates his busy Indian actor could allot him. Spielberg did and finished his work on schedule without giving Puri any cause for complaint. In fact, by the end of the first schedule Puri had to acknowledge to himself that Sir Richard had been right. Steven Spielberg was a master technician. And Indiana Jones today tops his list of favourite films.

Archives