Amrish Puri's birth anniversary: Here's why he refused to audition for Indiana Jones movie

One of the most prominent figures in Indian cinema, Amrish Puri, left a mark on the industry through his iconic portrayals in Bollywood as well as Hollywood. The late veteran actor Amrish Puri had appeared in Steven Spielberg's Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom as the antagonist Mola Ram. However, initially, Amrish turned down the role for the Hollywood movie. Dolly Thakore who is a popular casting director talked about this incident in her autobiography. June 22 marks Amrish Puri's birth anniversary, and for this occasion, here's a story about how initially Amrish refused to audition for the Indiana Jones movie.

Amrish Puri refused to audition for Steven Spielberg's Indiana Jones

Casting director Dolly Thakore wrote in her autobiography called The Act of Life that she sent stills of Amrish Puri from the movie Gehrayee to Steven Spielberg but he seemed to be disinterested in the part. She added that American casting agents came to India to meet with her, and instead of auditioning, Amrish asked them to watch him perform on the sets of a film. To her surprise, they came. Amrish then refused to read a page of script in English and said, “How does Spielberg know what language do I speak? He wouldn't know me as an actor.” Eventually, Amrish agreed to do the role and found the production very impressive. He described Spielberg as 'very boyish, an unassuming kind of person'. About the crew, Amrish said, “None of them had any ego, problems or reservations about my being an Indian. Unlike many of our actors in Indian films, there was expertise at all levels, and you couldn’t just do anything and get away with it.” 

According to a report by HT, Spielberg was denied permission to shoot in India and ended up filming portions of the film in places like Macau, Sri Lanka, and London. During the time of its release, Temple of Doom was banned in India, and Amrish was even labelled as ‘anti-nationalist'. According to Satyajit Ray’s biographer Andrew Robinson, Satyajit Ray hates the movie and said, “All but the first ten minutes of the film were ‘absolutely haywire, unbelievably bad.”

Later on, Steven Spielberg went on to make more parts of the movie franchise. Recently, a fifth film of the movie franchise is also announced which will feature Harrison Ford, Phoebe Waller-Bridge,  Body Holbrook, and many others in pivotal roles. James Mangold will helm the direction department of the movie.

IMAGE: STILL FROM INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM