IndiaPost.com - OM PURI IN HOLLYWOOD

NEW YORK: Even as the big names of Bollywood like Aishwarya Rai, Salman Khan and Amitabh Bachchan go around touting their Hollywood forays - at best appearing in Hollywood films made by filmmakers of Indian origin-- one veteran Bollywood actor is all set to make a huge splash on the Hollywood scene with his role in one of the most prestigious of Hollywood releases this Christmas.

Winner of several national awards, Om Puri is sharing screen space with three of Hollywood's academy award winning actors - Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Seymour Hoffman - in Charlie Wilson's War, which is already creating an Oscar buzz.

Charlie Wilson's War is the true story of how a playboy Congressman (played by Hanks), a renegade CIA agent (Hoffman) and a beautiful Houston socialite (Julia Roberts) joined forces to lead the largest and most successful covert operation in history. Wilson worked closely with the then Pakistan President General Zia Ul Haq (played by Om Puri) in the operation.

Congressman Wilson and the CIA operative manipulated Congress to have hundreds of millions of dollars released in order to assist the Afghan rebels in their fight against the Soviets in the 1980s. Their efforts contributed to the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, with consequences that reverberate throughout the world today.

After the Red Army retreated out of Afghanistan, when Zia ul-Haq was asked how a group of peasants was able to deliver such a decisive blow to the army of a superpower, the Pakistani President responded simply, "Charlie did it."

Interestingly, the award winning team of lead stars has teamed up with director Mike Nichols, himself an academy award winner, and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin to bring to life George Crile's best-selling book of the same name.

Describing his role in the film Om Puri said that even though he has a small role to play but his character, Zia is an integral part of the film, as he cuts deals to supply arms to Afghanistan. Puri previously worked with Nichols in Wolf opposite Jack Nicholson and Michelle Pfeiffer in 1994.