Om Puri back in Kannada

bangalore: veteran actor om puri is back in action - in a kannada film. and like in most of his hindi films, he will be a police officer again in dhruva, directed by m.s. ramesh. the film was launched in bangalore on thursday with shirin as heroine. speaking to journalists, om puri said ramesh had written wonderful dialogues for the kannada film ak-47, in which he too had a role.comparing ramesh to the likes of mani rathnam and vinod chopra, om puri said ramesh too is trying to present issue-based films with songs and dance. the star of films like ardh satya, aakrosh and more recently bollywood calling, om puri said the story of dhurvais about college politics - whether students should be involved in politics or not. "it is very good subject. the message conveyed is students shouldn't be exploited by politics or politicians". the hero, saurav, is caught in the web of politics and politicians. "i sympathise with him and bring him out of their clutches," om puri explained. going down memory lane, the veteran recalled his association with bangalore when he acted in b.v. karanth's film chor chor chunta in 1975. "at that time i was still in the film institute. that movie saw me through the entire year in the film industry." the other kannada film he starred in was thabbaliyu neenaade magane, shot in a village near tumkur. "in fact, when aakrosh was released, i heard in mumbai that it was doing very well in bangalore and kolkata." om puri, who came nearly an hour late for the press meet, thanks to traffic curbs following chinese prime minister zhu rongji's visit, profusely apologised for the delay. "bangalore is wonderful and a great city. now, however, it looks more stressed when one sees the traffic jams." for shirin, the heroine, this is her second film. she has already acted in a tamil movie. a ist pu student from baldwin's, shirin has modelled for horlicks and country club. dhruva is produced by suresh gowda and p.s. srinivasa murthy.