Hindi cinema's favourite Chinaman: Madan Puri and his onscreen villainies

Hindi movies are known for their heroes/heroines, but the villains, or rather, actors in villainous roles, are the heavy lifters. As against Dilip Kumar's around 70, Rajesh Khanna's over 170 and Amitabh Bachchan's 250-odd films, Prem Chopra appeared in 370-odd over 60 years, Pran - the template for the Hindi film villain - in over 380 films in 67 years, and Madan Puri went on to clock well over 400 in more than four decades.

With his pervasive presence in movies, of all types from the 1940s to the 1980s, a popular saying in the times was "if you wanted to make a movie then all you needed was an Arriflex camera, some raw film, and Madan Puri".

Whether the film was mythological or historic, a social or family drama, a romantic or crime thriller, featuring secret agents, hippies or NRIs, a gem of a parallel cinema, or the angry young man era, Madan Puri - who has the unique distinction of acting both with K.L. Saigal and Amitabh Bachchan - could be somewhere in it, and not necessarily in a negative role.

Born on this day

Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor