Did you know? Om Puri calls Helen Mirren his Smita Patil

Om Puri, the versatile Bollywood actor, who will be seen in Steven Spielberg and Oprah Winfrey’s upcoming movie American comedy-drama The Hundred-Foot Journey, has compared her co-star Helen Mirren with late Bollywood actor Smita Patel.  The movie has been directed by Lasse Hallstrom and includes Mirren, Manish Dayal, Juhi Chawla and Puri as the star cast.

Both the legendary actors will be seen romancing each other in the film. “The special thing in this film would be that I am acting with Helen Mirren and we fall in love with each other. She is my Smita Patil,” reported the Deccan Chronicle. Puri claims that he and Mirren will be seen playing a senior citizens’ love angle in the film. He added that there are no explicit scenes between the two and Mirren helped him do the Waltz dance.

Puri and Mirren shared an amiable off-screen rapport but did not have any conversations related to films. “She is a wonderful co-star and has admiration for me. I cooked a meal for her two-three times and she ended up loving Indian food. She was living in the countryside while I was living in the city when we were shooting in France. So, however little we could talk was on the sets during our free time,” he said.

“I still haven’t met Steven Spielberg as he never showed up on the sets. Only Oprah Winfrey was there who came for three days. She is a very nice and pleasant person. She greets you in Hindi saying ‘namaste’,” said Puri.

The Hundred-Foot Journey will be hitting theatres on August 8.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 27^th, 2014.

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