Madan Puri | Madan Puri's Biography and Information

Madan Puri

Biography and Information

Information On Madan Puri
Name:	Madan Puri
Family:	Brother-Amrish Puri

Madan Puri's Profile

Madan Puri had a film acting career that spanned over 50 years and topped the 400 movie mark. By rough estimates Madan would have had to average 8 film every year over a five decade span to achieve this goal! It is a mind boggling feat, phenomenal actually. What is truly remarkable is that Madan Puri was a character actor who played a variety of roles and was not always typecast. Madan of course played his share of villains and negative characters, however one could also see him as a kind uncle, police inspector, father, poor villager, or even from his early roles in the 1940s as a mythological hero.

In Bollywood cinema of the 60s and 70s Madan was a stock character actor in just about every notable film. His villain was a shifty gangster and often his sympathetic characters were played as haggard and emotionally exhausted people.

Madan Puri's peer was Pran who he acted with in his youth as noted in this excerpt from a "The Hindu" article about Pran. "..For an actor who began his career playing ``Sita'' during Ramlilas in Simla opposite Madan Puri who played Ram..." (link to article at bottom of page) Apparently Madan had the acting bug even as a child.

The two thespians, Pran and Madan have been a part of Hindi cinema through it's many incarnations, mythologicals of the 40s, the classic period of the 50s, social dramas, family dramas, the romantic period of the 60s, hippie films, the art films of parallel cinema, the angry young man phase, and action films of the 80s. When watching a Bollywood film from the 60s or 70s one can often see both Madan and Pran acting opposite each other.

Madan Puri's younger brother is the Bollywood actor, Amrish Puri who is noted as a popular villain. Amrish followed his elder brother in the acting trade late in life when he was in his 40s.

Posted in: Bollywood Actor's Biography