Om Puri blows away smoking allegations

Om Puri who now describes himself as controversy's favourite stepchild, landed himself in the soup again on Saturday when he was accused of smoking at the Patel Memorial International College in Patiala.

Speaking for the first time on the controversy Om says, "Am I a mad man that I'd openly smoke in a public place, and that too an educational institution? Grant me with more common sense than that, please. I don't know why I'm being targeted in this way time after time."

So what are those allegations of smoking at the college?

"Have you seen the photograph where I am shown smoking, suuposedly in a college? Do you see any sign of the college in the picture? That picture was not taken in the college. It was taken at the Principal's bungalow where I took a smoke to relax. I didn't know mediapersons would be present at the Principal's place. When I saw them there I requested them not to take my picture when I was smoking. But they did. And now they claim it's in the college.What do I do? The more I recoil from controversy the more I get into."

Sounding a wee persecuted Om says, "I am being thrust into one controversy after another during the past two years. Before that there was not a hint of a controversy anywhere in my life. Now after the book that Nandita (his wife) wrote I can't seem to take one step without creating a hungama."