Mumbai, June 17, 2026
Late legendary actor Om Puri once revealed how he struggled with English during his NSD days.
During his interaction with actor Anupam Kher for the show “The Anupam Kher Show – Kucch Bhi Ho Sakta Hai”, Om Puri shared,
“I was having a lot of difficulty with English in the National School of Drama because I studied in Punjabi medium, and here we were taught in English medium. There were some from the convent whose English was very good. So I suffered from complex.”
When Ebrahim Alkazi, the director of the National School of Drama (NSD) in New Delhi from 1962 to 1977, came to know about this, he asked people to spy on him.
As Om Puri finally confessed to Alkazi that he is unable to speak in English, unlike many others in NSD, he told Om Puri to not to speak in English and speak in Hindi instead if that made him feel more comfortable.
However, he advised the actor to read newspapers and communicate with his friends in English in order to improve.
“Even if they laugh, don’t worry”, Alkazi had said.
Following his primary education, Om Puri joined the National School of Drama , and his classmate, Naseeruddin Shah, encouraged Om Puri to join the Film and Television Institute of India in Poona with him.
Talking about his acting journey, Om Puri made his debut with the 1976 Marathi film “Ghashiram Kotwal,” which was based on a Marathi play of the same name by Vijay Tendulkar.
Om Puri has worked in multiple languages including, English, Punjabi, Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam, Bengali, Gujarati, Urdu, and Marathi.
Some of his most celebrated dramas are – ‘Aakrosh’ (1980), ‘Arohan’ (1982), ‘Ardh Satya’ (1983), ‘Disco Dancer’ (1982) ‘Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro’ (1983), ‘Chachi 420 ‘(1997), ‘Hera Pheri’ (2000), and ‘Chup Chup Ke’ (2006), to name just a few.(Agency)
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