Om Puri, whose biography Unlikely Hero was released during the IFFI in Goa tells Jyothi Venkatesh that he had started his life as a rag picker by picking coals from the railway track...
Mani Ratnam released Om Puri's biography Unlikely Hero, written by Om Puri's journalist wife Nandita Puri at Inox in Goa during the IFFI. The book had earlier been released at the hands of Amitabh Bachchan in Mumbai.

While releasing the book, Mani Ratnam said that he felt that it was a great honor for him to release the book and added that directing Om Puri has been an amazing experience for him.

"I am quite curious to read about Om Puri's life in the book. It should have been very difficult for Om's wife Nandita to write about him even though she is closely associated with him in her capacity as his wife," Mani said and very sportingly bought a copy of the book by paying Rs 395

Om said that though it is difficult to write about him since she is his wife, it goes to her credit that Nandita had detached herself and written about him objectively.

"I'd go to the extent of going on record that my wife Nandita has really stripped me in public and I am happy to have been stripped by my wife in public. I am very proud of my wife who is now all set to come out with her ninth edition of her book of short stories shortly, after having written for two films, including one for Poonam Sinha"

"I have been a great admirer of Mani Sir because he is one film maker who has brought the right combination of art and commerce together as far as films is concerned. Unless some art film makers who set out to intellectualize, Mani Sir is like Bimal Roy, who made sensible films like Do Beegha Zameen and Devdas."

Om confessed that he was quite angry and cut up with his wife when sensational excerpts from the book were published when he was shooting in Chandigarh, because she did not bother to reprimand the publication or the journalist who published it without her permission.

"It is not a cheap or sensational book. The media quoted me irresponsibly. My son Ishan who is just twelve years old was in tears when he called up. Let me clarify that the story was not a publicity gimmick, as some people tend to believe to promote the book written by my wife. All that I can say is that I am proud of my life and have not hidden anything from my wife."

Om added that his journey in life had begun when he was just 7 when he was a rag picker who earned his livelihood by picking coals from the railway track.

"I have been very frank about my love life too. My book is actually a tribute to all my friends who had helped me on way and my teachers who trained me and shaped me like my mentors Shyam Benegal and Govind Nihalani. If only they had not given me the right break at the right time with the right film, who knows, I may not have been able to show case my talent to the world, as an actor."

Nandita Puri, who her husband Om Puri described as a woman of few words who was very media savvy, said that she had set out to write the book with a lot of empathy, with a certain detachment which it needed since Om also happened to be her husband.

She conceded that it was tough writing the book objectively but added that writing the book helped her see her husband in a different light from what she had perceived of him and said that she wanted the reader to connect to the book in all levels.

"It is light, simple reading. I am only a biographer. This is a teaser trailer. If it does well, I'd certainly try to bring out a fatter volume because I have condensed out of whatever I could lay hands on my husband's life. I am glad to announce that the book would be also published shortly in Punjabi and Malayalam".