Om Shivpuri was an Indian theatre actor-director and character actor in Hindi films.
A National School of Drama, New Delhi alumnus, Om Shivpuri became the first chief of the National School of Drama Repertory Company (1964) and one of its actors; he later founded an important theatre group of its era, in New Delhi: Dishantar.
Background
Omji was born on July 14, 1936, to a Brahmin family of princely origin, in Kashmir. They later shifted to Jodhpur, where his father was adopted by the royal family. They were very orthodox and the women in the family had to be behind veils. Even if they fell ill, a doctor could not examine them.
He was the fifth of eight children and theirs was a joint family. Omji graduated in Jodhpur. His elder sister was a professor at the Maharani College in Jaipur. By then his father fell sick so all of them shifted to Jaipur. In Jaipur, Omji did a part-time job in a school. He had also done his first year LLB, but he could not complete it because he was a ring leader in college, always up to some mischief. His attendance was short and he was chucked out.
Om Shivpuri has a daughter, Ritu Shivpuri, who is now an Hindi film actor, and had a son, Vineet. Om Shivpuri died in 1990 of a heart attack. Several of his films were released after his death.
Education
Sudha Shivpuri and Om Shivpuri joined National School of Drama, New Delhi and were trained under theatre doyen Ebrahim Alkazi
Career
Om Shivpuri started his career by working at Jaipur Radio Station, where Sudha Shivpuri (who later became his wife) was working at the time.
Later, they joined National School of Drama, New Delhi and were trained under theatre doyen Ebrahim Alkazi. After graduating in 1964, they joined the newly formed, NSD Repertory Company as actors. Om Shivpuri was also the first chief of the NSD Repertory Company and remained so till 1976, when Manohar Singh followed him.
Meanwhile, Om Shivpuri and Sudha Shivpuri got married in 1968 and started their own theatre group, Dishantar, which went on to become one of Delhi pioneering important theatre groups of its era[3] and produced many plays with him as a director, the most important being Aadhe Adhure, a classic Hindi play written by Mohan Rakesh; Khamosh! Adalat Jari Hai, Hindi version of Vijay Tendulkar's Marathi play Shantata! Court Chalu Aahe (Silence! The Court is in Session), with his wife Sudha Shivpuri in the lead role; and their most famous production, Girish Karnad’s historical play Tughlaq, which was performed at ridges of Talkatora Gardens, New Delhi.
Om Shivpuri started his film career in 1971 with Mani Kaul’s Ashadh Ka Ek Din, soon followed by Gulzar’s Koshish in 1972.
He shifted to Mumbai in 1974. In a career spanning over two decades (1971–1993) he acted in over 175 Hindi films playing roles as varied as villains to supporting cast.