Om Puri is distraught man these days. Thanks to his wife journalist-columnist Nandita, the acclaimed actor has become quite a villain in real life after she exposed some of his darkest secrets to market the biography she is writing on Om.
After reading the reports Om, who is currently shooting for a film in Chandigarh said that he couldn't forgive her and adds that her shocking revelations have upset him like never before, as she talked about his sexual encounters as if those were his biggest achievements. He said that he would not let his wife get away with the mistake.
Nandita revealed that her husband had sex with his maid Shanti at the age of 14 and has also had a liaison with a woman named Laxmi.
“My wife has reduced a very important and sacred part of my life to cheap and lurid gossip. I had shared these dark secrets with my wife as all husbands do. If she chose to make them public at least she should’ve made sure to maintain a dignity about experiences that are a valuable part of my life. Has she forgotten that I have a standing in society and I’ve worked hard to achieve all that I have today? I won’t allow her to throw it all away for the sake of sensationalism”, adds the actor.
As for Laxmi, Om says, “This lady whom Nandita talks in such an undignified manner was Laxmi, who raised me and my brother’s orphaned children. My relationship with this wonderful woman was a homage to her loyalty for looking after me unconditionally.”
But Om is candid enough to confirm his sexual relationship with Laxmi. "But it was not a furtive and sleazy experience. It was beautiful. Why make such a tamasha out of these very sensitive moments, " he asks.
"Mahatma Gandhi spoke of his experiences with sexuality in The Story of My Experiments With Truth. Why highlight these aspects when there’s so much more to me? Do you know, when I was a child, I was traveling by train with my destitute mother. The entire compartment collected money to feed us. That incident remains etched in my mind. I was working in a teashop when I was seven years old. I had hoped when my life was chronicled it would be an inspirational story, ” he adds.
So why exactly did the actor allow his wife to write his autobiography?
“I was aware that another lady (Aparajita Krishna) was writing my biography. When Nandita expressed a desire to write about me I couldn’t stop her because she’s my wife but she has forgotten who she is, ” added Om.
The actor complains that Nandita didn’t allow him to read the manuscript. “Not once did she let me read even one page of the manuscript. How was I to know how she would use the incidents from my life to sell her book?”
When Nandita was asked about Om's reactions, she said, “This is all such a mistake. My book on my husband is a biography, not bl***y pornography. The book is about Om, the man and the actor. He had sex as an adolescent with his maid and then he had a long liaison with the other lady who was also a maid.
This was his way of coming out of his other relationships and demolishing class differences. If Om has any objection to her being called a maid he’s just being unrealistic. The double escapades with the two maidservants has made Om feel he’ll be compared to Shiney Ahuja. Now my husband is angry, my publishers are upset and so am I.”