Madan Puri

Madan Puri (30 September 1915 – 13 January 1985) was an Indian actor who worked in Hindi and Punjabi cinema. A prolific character actor, he is remembered chiefly for his portrayals of antagonists, having appeared in around 430 films over a career that spanned more than five decades.

Key facts

Background

Madan Puri belonged to a family that produced several notable figures in Indian cinema. His elder brother Chaman Puri and younger brother Amrish Puri were also actors, the latter becoming one of the most recognisable screen villains of Hindi cinema in the 1980s and 1990s.

Career

Working principally in Hindi-language cinema and also in Punjabi films, Madan Puri established himself as a dependable character actor. While he played a range of supporting parts, he is most strongly identified with negative roles, appearing as the antagonist or as members of criminal gangs in numerous productions of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. By the close of his career he had featured in roughly 430 films.

Significance

As one of Hindi cinema's most frequently cast character actors of his generation, Madan Puri contributed to the visual and narrative grammar of the screen villain in mid-twentieth-century Indian films. His long innings, ranging across more than fifty years, places him among the busiest supporting actors of his era, and the Puri family's collective body of work forms a significant strand in the history of Hindi film acting.

Related topics

• Amrish Puri
• Chaman Puri
• Hindi cinema
• Punjabi cinema
• Character actor

References

• "Madan Puri" – English Wikipedia
• Wikidata item: Q12445067