Anupam Kher & Om Puri Movies Together List — 10 Films

The shape of the work

The 2000s account for 60% of everything they made together. The 1990s belonged to Zor; the 2010s to Dabangg. Anupam Kher acted in every film; Om Puri acted in all of them. Strictly Hindi cinema — they never crossed industries together.

Partnership facts

• They first shared screen space in Zor (1998), a forgettable action film. But the real spark came when Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra cast them together in Rang De Basanti (2006). Mehra later said he wrote the roles of Kher and Puri's characters specifically to mirror their real-life friendship — two veteran actors who had come up together in NSD.
• In Dabangg (2010), Kher played the comic sidekick and Puri played the villain. The trick? They never rehearsed together. Kher would improvise his lines on set, and Puri would react in real time, keeping the scene fresh. The director Arbaaz Khan said their unscripted banter in the police station scene was entirely ad-libbed.
• Their pairing in Rang De Basanti directly inspired the casting of two older actors as friends in the 2013 film Madras Cafe. Director Shoojit Sircar said he wanted the same 'unspoken understanding' that Kher and Puri had, and cast Naseeruddin Shah and Pankaj Kapur instead — but the template was set by Kher-Puri.
• Off-screen, Kher and Puri were close friends who shared a love for food and whiskey. During the shoot of Buddha Mar Gaya (2007), they would sneak out of the hotel in Ooty to eat at a local dhaba, often returning late and making the crew wait. The director had to schedule their scenes after lunch to avoid delays.
• Om Puri once said about Kher: 'He is the only actor who can make me laugh even when I am in a bad mood. On the sets of Victoria No. 203, I was going through a divorce, and Anupam would crack jokes between takes just to keep me going. That film was a mess, but working with him saved my sanity.'