Amrish Puri & Rishi Kapoor Movies Together List — 11 Films

The shape of the work

The 1980s account for 73% of everything they made together. The 1980s belonged to Coolie; the 1990s to Deewana. Amrish Puri acted in every film; Rishi Kapoor acted in all of them. Strictly Hindi cinema — they never crossed industries together.

Partnership facts

• Amrish Puri was initially hesitant to play the villain in Naseeb (1981) because he thought the role was too small. Rishi Kapoor personally convinced him to take it, telling him the film would be a blockbuster. It was.
• In Nagina (1986), Rishi Kapoor played the hero who hunts a shape-shifting snake. Amrish Puri played the evil tantrik. Their scenes together had a specific rhythm: Puri would deliver his lines in a slow, booming growl, and Rishi would respond with quick, nervous energy. That push-pull made the chase sequences feel genuinely tense.
• Nagina (1986) was the film that launched the 'snake woman' horror trend in Bollywood. It directly inspired dozens of copycat films in the late 80s and early 90s. Without Rishi and Amrish's face-off in that film, the entire subgenre might not have existed.
• On the sets of Duniya (1984), Amrish Puri would often cook his own meals and share them with Rishi Kapoor. Rishi later said Puri made the best dal he ever ate on a film set.
• Rishi Kapoor once said in an interview: 'Amrish Puri was the only villain who could make me feel genuinely scared while acting. I didn't have to pretend.'
• Janam Janam (1988) was their only film where Amrish Puri played a positive role opposite Rishi Kapoor. Rishi had to lobby the director to cast Puri as the kind-hearted father, because the director thought Puri's face was 'too villainous' for the part.