Om Puri wanted to settle down in Chandigarh

CHANDIGARH: Actor Om Puri’s death has cut short his dream to settle down in the City Beautiful and see Chandigarh as a film city. Theatre personality Neelam Mansingh, who was his junior in National School of Drama (NSD), shared how he had been visiting Chandigarh more often in last four to five years to visit friends and to find a home for himself. G S Channi, another theatre personality from the city, recalled the good old days as he too was from Patiala and knew him closely.
Channi, who too was his junior in NSD, remembered his kindness and how he accepted to be a part of his film even though there was no budget for making a film.“He passed out in the year when I joined NSD, but I knew him from Patiala since I too belong from that city. I knew him since 1968. He was like a big brother to me.”
“He was a very kind and cheerful man. Once I approached him and asked him that I am making a film and want him to act. He asked what the budget was and I said there was no budget. Had it been someone else, they would have said no but then he said yes,” Channi said.
Neelam Mansingh knew Om Puri since 1974. “He was very keen to settle in Chandigarh. Every time he came he said that I don’t want to settle in Mumbai. From last four five years, every time he came he would go and see these building that were coming up around Manimajra.”
“He knew many people in Patiala and he liked the city since he days of East is East,” she said.
She had last spoken to him on New Year’s Eve and was shocked to hear the news of his sudden demise. “He was keeping well and he was fine when we spoke last. He was producing a film and he had called me up to ask for actors. So we were regularly in touch.”
Talking about college days, she recalled, “He was a part of batch which had many talented people, including Nasserudin Shah and others.”
She had also taken him to the Indian Theatre Department of Panjab University. “He was a very fine actor but he never took a formal class but interacted with students.”
She also shared how he did not have money for joining Film Institute of India. “Going to film institute was difficult for him as he faced financial problems. I remember one of my friends from Amritsar also came forward to help him buy train tickets, but finally, his talent was spotted and he got a scholarship.” One incident she remembered of him, after she heard that he has passed away was of the time when he shared with her how he never had a picture of his mother and when she passed away he went around the city looking for a photographer and got a picture clicked with her. “I was really moved by the story,” she said.
She also shared that last time when he came to Chandigarh he insisted to cook, “Then he made Gobi for us.”