DIL SE : BADDIE ON SCREEN, BUDDY ELSEWHERE

In real life, an actor may come across as the striking contrast of how they are stereotyped in films. That is precisely the case with Puneet Issar, a hard-boiled on-screen baddie who has won the hearts of people from all walks of life while wearing multiple hats as actor, writer, director, producer, and more. All in all, he has made a lasting impression with his superb performances in daily soap operas and movies in a variety of languages. His career in entertainment started in 1983 when he played a villain in Manmohan Desai’s film Coolie. However, he gained nationwide popularity for his role as Duryodhan in BR Chopra’s television series Mahabharat. Subsequently, Issar starred in a number of well-known movies such as Ready, Son of Sardaar, Chandra Mukhi, Prem Shakti, Ram Jaane, Border, Refugee, Krrish, Bachna Ae Haseeno, and The Kashmir Files. His debut feature film as a director was Garv, a police drama starring Salman Khan, for which he co-wrote the screenplay with his spouse Deepali. His acting prowess has been appreciated much down south as well because of the  versatile and challenging roles he played in films such as Yoddha (Malayalam), I Love India (Tamil), Samrat (Kannada), Master, Allari Pidugu, Narasimhudu, Chandrahas and Gautama Buddha (Telugu), to mention a few. In fact, the only image that comes to mind when we hear the name Duryodhan is the visage of Puneet Issar. It is nearly hard to imagine anyone else playing the part than him. In a conversation with The Pioneer’s Shikha Duggal, Puneet Issar goes down the memory lane to shed light on his life of masti from childhood, how bravery runs in his family making him mimic Bhagat Singh as a youngster, painful moments of unwittingly injuring Big B on the sets of Coolie, and more.