Indian movie actor Amrish Puri is a very prominent star of Bollywood. This is a landmark name in the field of villainous roles in the industry. He is best known for the role of Mogambo in sci-fi movie of Shekhar Kapoor `Mr. India`. His dialogue in that film was `Mogambo khush hua`. He used to utter this later also whenever he gets any reward for his work. He worked in Steven Spielberg`s `Indiana Jones and the Temple of doom` where his character as Mola Ram is still remembered. Puri also had a minor role in Richard Attenborough`s Gandhi playing the Indian independence leader`s Muslim sponsor in South Africa. Amrish Puri was born in the district named Nawanshehar in Punjab. He was the son of Lala Nihal Chand and Ved Kaur. He had four siblings, elder brothers Chaman Puri and Madan Puri both of them have eshtablished themselves as actors, elder sister Chandrakanta, and a younger brother, Harish Puri. He graduated from B.M. College in Shimla, Himachal Pradesh. Amrish came to Bombay with less than hundred rupees in his pocket and made it so big with his sheer hard work, perseverance, and disciplined lifestyle. He was a man of nature. He worked very hard to establish himself in the field of Bollywood films. On 5th of January, 1957 he married Urmila Divekar, at the Shri Krishna Temple in Wadala. The couple had two children, son Rajeev Puri, and daughter Namrata Puri. Amrish had a passion for collecting hats, and bought a hat or two on every abroad trip of his. He had a collection of over 200 hats from across the world. Amrish was a very religious person by heart and a hard core Shiv devotee. After coming to Mumbai Amrish Puri failed at his first screen test and joined as a worker with the Ministry of Labour. His brother Madan Puri was already a proved villain at that time. After the failure in the screen test Amrish started performing at the Prithvi Theatre, in plays written by Satyadev Dubey. He was a born actor and his works brought colour when he became well-known as stage actor and won the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1979. This theatre recognition soon led to work in television ads and eventually to films at the age of 40. Amrish Puri worked in multi lingual films like in Hindi, Hollywood, Punjabi, Kannada, Telugu and Tamil films. Though he was successful in all of these industries, he is best known for his work in Bollywood cinema. He has appeared in over four hundred movies altogether. His dominating screen presence & booming voice made him stand out amongst a sea of actors. He was very much distinguishable because of his voice. He played character roles and was well-known as a villain. He had a striking bass voice, the ability to extend his eyes widely out of their eyelids during climatic scenes and an outsize acting style that made him a convincing villain in even the most melodramatic movies.

His career in different films in different languages has seen a lot of ups and downs. In 1970 he appeared in his first film, `Prem Pujari` although the first film he had signed for was `Reshma Aur Shera` which released in 1971. This was followed by many villain or supporting roles in numerous art films. After `Reshma Aur Shera`, he had to wait a long time till filmmaker Shyam Benegal offered him roles in films like `Nishaant`, `Manthan` and `Bhumika`. He also acted in `Suraj Ka Satvan Ghoda` which got National film award as best film. He also appeared in Govind Nihalani`s film, Party in 1984. He caught the attention of the box office with several hits in the 1980s and 90s including Vidhaata, Phool Aur Kaante, Mr India and Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge. In `Dilwale Dulhaniyan Le Jayenge` he played the role of a father, which was completely in a positive supporting role, and he did it very successfully. Till now many fathers try to relate themselves according to that personality. His role in `Taal` was amazing as a cunning realistic father. He was unbeatable in `China Gate` as a defeated soldier. The villainous roles in `Koyla`, `Karan Arjun`, `Aaj ka Arjun`, etc is incomparable to any other artists. While he is best known for his work as a villain, he has also played the `good guy` at times. He was a kind-hearted American businessman in `Pardes` and a genial grandfather in the film `Chori Chori Chupke Chupke`. He played excellently in `Aitraaz`. His last film was Kisna: The Warrior Poet. The film was released a few days after his death.

He worked in one Malayalam movie `Kalapani` where also he showed his excel. In punjabi film named `Chan Pardesi` he played the role of a landlord villain. He also played some of the Telegu films named as Jagadeka Veerudu Athiloka Sundari, Major Chandrakanth, Aditya-369, Kondaveeti Donga, Aswamedham, Aakhari Poratam, etc. his Kannada films includes Simhada Mari Saniya, Subbi Subbaka Suvalali, Love and few other movies. He made his mark in two of his films named `Dalapathi` by Mani Ratnam and `Baba` by Rajnikanth.

On 12th January 2005 this Indian movie actor Amrish Puri died of brain Haemorrhage at the age of 72. He suffered a blood clot in the brain and slipped into coma. His autobiography titled, `The Act of Life` was published in 2006, and is seen as the document of the cinema of his times

Indian movie actor Amrish Puri has won lot of awards in his whole acting career. In 1968 he won the Maharashtra State Drama Competition. In 1979 he won Sangeet Natak Akadmi award. He won filmfare best supporting actor award for `Meri Jung` in 1986. For `Suraj ka Satvan Ghoda` the actor won the best actor award in Sydney film festival. He has also got best actor in Singapore Film festival for the same film. In 1997 he got filmfare as well as Star Screen award as best supporting actor for `Ghatak`. He also got best supporting actor in filmfare and also Star Screen once again for `Virasat`.