Veteran actor Annu Kapoor recently opened up about his complicated relationship with the late Om Puri. He praised his craft while also revisited a personal chapter involving his sister, Seema Kapoor. In a recent interview, Kapoor described the late actor as immensely talented but did not shy away from expressing the pain his family endured.
For those unversed, Seema Kapoor was briefly married to Om Puri, but their relationship ended within months after she discovered his infidelity.
'He betrayed my sister, ruined her life'
Reflecting on his mixed feelings, Annu Kapoor told Siddharth Kanan, “Om Puri was a phenomenal actor. There was no great actor like him, but that is 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.”
He further recalled the emotional turmoil surrounding those years and the eventual reconciliation during Puri’s final phase. “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,” Kapoor added, noting that he has since made peace with the past.
Despite the bitterness, Kapoor said that he harbours no ill will today. “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 said, referring to Nandita Puri.
“If I start telling those stories, it will become messy, because the brother inside me will come out. Om Puri was also very scared of me, because I speak bluntly. I am not afraid. I was helpless, I could not do anything,” he added.
Seema Kapoor’s account of the marriage
Previously, Seema Kapoor had shared her side of the story in detail, recalling how her marriage began on a positive note before taking a painful turn. She revealed that she was three months pregnant when she learned about Om Puri’s affair.
"Everything was going fine after our marriage, but that movie turned my life upside down... My good friend Renu Saluja, Vidhu Vinod Chopra's first wife, knew about the affair. But she and Sudhir Mishra and everyone else chalked it down to a phase. They felt that he'd get back to normal after the film. I found out about the affair much later, when I was in Delhi. He called me up and told me that he was seeing someone else, and my friends said that he was just seeking attention," reminsced Seema Kapoor.
She also shared that Puri met Nandita Puri during the making of City of Joy, and that several people in their circle were aware of the relationship but did not inform her.
According to Seema, while Om Puri wanted a divorce, she had hoped to save the marriage due to her pregnancy. However, the emotional strain became overwhelming. “But things became overwhelming; Puri sahab would drink too much, and Nandita would make a scene. One night, I decided to leave. I was three months pregnant.”
The separation was followed by further heartbreak. Seema received an alimony of Rs 6 lakh but refused additional financial assistance after the loss of her child. "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," she recalled.
Om Puri later married Nandita Puri in 1993, and the couple had a son, Ishaan. The actor passed away in 2017. In his final years, he reportedly reached out to Seema Kapoor and apologised.
