Om Puri no more

Om Puri, the acclaimed Indian actor who appeared in hit films including "Gandhi", "City of Joy" and "East is East", died yesterday after suffering a heart attack.

The award-winning character actor, whose career ranged from arthouse Indian films to Hollywood epics, died of a heart attack at his home in Mumbai, a family member told the Press Trust of India. He was 66.

"It's really a great loss," the veteran scriptwriter Javed Akhtar told PTI.

"Wonderful person, great actor and with such impressive body of work, right from Satyajit Ray to any commercial Hindi film to films in US and Pakistan," he said, referring to the renowned Indian director.

Bollywood stars tweeted their shock at the news, which broke early yesterday, with Amitabh Bachchan saying he was "shocked" to learn of Puri's death.

"A dear friend, a lovable colleague and an exceptional talent ... in grief!" he said.

Actress Priyanka Chopra said it was "The end of an era", adding, "the legacy lives on".

Puri made his debut in the mid-1970s before going on to star in a number of major Hindi hits as well as, controversially, in some Pakistani movies.

He was known in India for his role in edgy arthouse movies such as Aakrosh (1980) and Ardh Satya (1982), for which he won the National Indian Film Award for Best Actor.

But he also acted in major Hollywood hits, featuring alongside the likes of Jack Nicholson, Tom Hanks and Patrick Swayze.

"Though I did try to resist commercial films for quite some time, I succumbed to it finally as money was equally important as art," Puri wrote in his autobiography.

"But as an artist I never compromised on what I had to do on-screen, even if the film was not up to the standard."