NFDC appoints Om Puri as chairman

Eminent Bollywood actor and theatre artist Om Puri on Wednesday has taken charge of new chairman of the prestigious National Film Development Corporation of India that promotes Indian movies on both national and international level.

Puri took the charge after nearby a gap of one year as renowned film distributor and financier Manmohan Shetty had resigned from this post last year.

His appointment came at that time when Information and Broadcasting Ministry has directed NFDC to make a film for marking the 150th revolution history under its banner.

NFDC will make this ‘unnamed’ film in collaboration with Sajid Nadiadwala while Vinay Shukla will direct the film. The lead role of ‘Tatya Tope’ will be played by Akshay Kumar.

Om Puri will now work for the development of NFDC and its significant role in Indian Cinema along with present Managing Director Nina Gupta, who is also a well known cinema and television personality.

Om was born in Ambala (Punjab) on October 18, 1950 and completed his education from Film and Television Institute of India. He was also an alumnus of the 1973 batch of National School of Drama where Naseeruddin Shah was in his batch.

He has registered strong presentation in both commercial and parallel cinema. He won two national awards for his ‘real’ acting in Ardhya Satya and Arohan while in commercial cinema he had won the ‘Best Supporting Actor’ award for Aakrosh. He has also played many versatile roles in several Hollywood and British movie.

The Mystic Masseur, East-West, Such a long Journey, East is East, My son the fanatic, The Ghost and the Darkness, Brothers in trouble, In Custody, Parole Officer and Richard Attenborough's ‘Gandhi’ are some in his long list of movies. He got the most appreciation for My Son the fanatic and East is East. In Charlie Wilson's War (2007), he played the role of late Pakistan President Zia-Ul-Haq while Hollywood star Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts in the lead role.

While in his Bollywood career, Sadgati, Dhohkaal, Jaane bhi do yaaron, Ardhya Satya, Arohan, Aakrosh, Machis and Dev are among some much-admired movies.

The NFDC is a central agency that has produced or funded 300 movies so far. The last released movie with its association was Bub (Father) directed by Jyoti Sarup, which was released in 2001 and won the National Award for the best film on national integration.