Raees actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui blasted Indian award shows for failing to honour the late Om Puri who passed away due to a heart attack on 6 January this year. He wrote, "#Oscars paid homage 2 late #OmPuri, But in #bollywood award functions nobody converse single word for his contribution.... SHAME"
The 89th Academy Awards paid homage to Puri in their In Memoriam section, which commemorated the members of the film industry who passed away in 2016. Puri was one of many who was mentioned in the pre-edited sequence to which singer Sara Bareilles sang the song ‘Both Sides Now’.
However, on Hindi cinema’s biggest awards night, the Filmfare Awards, held on 14 January and telecast on 18 February 2017, there was no mention of the actor who won the Filmfare best supporting actor award in 1981 for Aakrosh (1980) and the Lifetime Achievement award in 2009. Puri also had four other nominations in the supporting actor category.
The Filmfare Awards have never had a special segment to honour those who passed away the previous year. But they could have at least mentioned the acclaimed actor who died a mere days before the awards ceremony was taped. At the Oscars, actress Jennifer Aniston who presented the 'In Memoriam' section, especially brought up actor Bill Paxton who had tragically died the day before due to surgical complications and could not be included in the tribute due to time constraints.
Last year, actor Saeed Jaffrey was similarly honoured by being included in the 'In Memoriam' section. He passed away on 15 November 2015 and had acted with Puri in the Oscar-winning Gandhi (1981) and Shyam Benegal’s Mandi (1983).
Siddiqui worked with Puri in the blockbuster Bajrangi Bhaijaan (2015) and was supposed to work with him on Nandita Das’s upcoming film on Manto.