Anupam Kher & Amrish Puri Movies Together List — 18 Films

The shape of the work

The 1990s account for 67% of everything they made together. The 1980s belonged to Dayavan; the 2000s to Dhaai Akshar Prem Ke. Anupam Kher acted in every film; Amrish Puri acted in all of them. Strictly Hindi cinema — they never crossed industries together.

Partnership facts

• They first shared screen space in Ram Lakhan (1989) because Subhash Ghai needed two powerhouse villains who could go toe-to-toe with each other — and with Anil Kapoor. Ghai cast them as brothers in crime, and their first scene together was a shouting match that reportedly left the crew stunned.
• In Tridev (1989), Puri played the cold, calculating villain while Kher played his hot-headed, impulsive sidekick. Kher later said Puri would deliberately slow down his dialogue delivery to make Kher's outbursts land harder — a silent rhythm they never rehearsed.
• Despite playing rivals or uneasy allies on screen, Kher and Puri were close off it. Kher once said Puri was the only co-star who would call him just to check if he'd eaten properly during long shoots. They stayed in touch until Puri's death in 2005.
• Anupam Kher once said in an interview: 'Amrish ji and I never needed to discuss a scene. He would look at me, I would look at him, and we knew exactly what the other was going to do. That's rare.'
• Their pairing in Naaka Bandi (1990) was so effective that the film's producer tried to spin them off into a separate villain buddy movie. It never happened, but the idea of two antagonists sharing screen time as equals became a template for later films like Khiladi 786.
• In Dhaai Akshar Prem Ke (2000), their only film where they weren't antagonists, Kher played Puri's son. Kher later admitted he struggled to play vulnerable around Puri because Puri's natural gravitas made him want to stand up straight. Puri had to physically pull him down by the shoulder during rehearsals.