Kamal Ghorui
The late Om Puri is widely regarded as one of India’s most accomplished performers, but for Annu Kapoor, the association carries deeply personal and painful memories. Puri was married to Annu Kapoor’s sister Seema Kapoor. He later left her at the time when she was pregnant and married Nandita. In a recent conversation, Kapoor revisited a sensitive phase involving his sister’s short-lived marriage to Puri, speaking about both his admiration for the actor and the emotional turmoil that followed.Kapoor praised Puri’s craft but did not shy away from addressing what went wrong in his personal life. He said in an interview with Siddharth Kannan, “Om Puri was a phenomenal actor. There was no great actor like him, but that was a different matter. He became someone’s husband, and after becoming someone’s husband, he betrayed a woman, and that is where things went wrong, and I am that woman’s brother.”
Kapoor was referring to Seema Kapoor, who was briefly married to Puri in the early 1990s. Their relationship ended within a few months after she learned about his involvement with another woman. Years later, they reconnected during Puri’s declining health. Reflecting on that period, Kapoor admitted he struggled with anger, not just towards Puri but also towards his sister. “He would have gone 10 years earlier, it was my sister who took care of him. When your body became weak and fragile, then you came back. I was also angry and upset with my sister,” he said.Despite the past, Kapoor shared that he no longer harbours resentment. “Today Om Puri saab is not there, his son is there, even today I pray to God for his son and for his ex wife Nandita. I have no enmity towards anyone, but there is regret that my sister Seema Kapoor’s life was ruined, she has no support.”He also acknowledged that recounting the entire episode in detail is still emotionally challenging. “If I start telling those stories, it will become messy, because the brother inside me will come out.” Speaking about his personal dynamic with Puri, Kapoor added, “Om Puri was also very scared of me, because I speak bluntly. I am not afraid. I was helpless, I could not do anything.”Earlier in an interview, Seema had recalled the traumatic experience during that time. Om’s affair with Nandita left her with immense trauma as she lost her baby while pregnant. During the divorce, Om had given her an alimony of Rs 6 lakh but when she lost their baby, the actor sent her Rs 25,000. She said, “Forget consoling me. He sent Rs 25,000 via his secretary. I turned it down, and his secretary told me, ‘This ego is what is destroying you’. But what he thought was ego was just self-respect.”
