Two days after Om Puri's sudden demise at the age of 66 following a heart attack, both his former spouses organised chauthas on the same day and around the same time. While Nandita chose Juhu's Iskcon Temple and started around 4:30 pm, Seema's prayer meet was hosted at the Gurudwara in Four Bungalows, beginning just 15 minutes earlier. Only Shabana Azmi, Anup Jalota, Govind Nihalani, Mita Vashisht and Ashoke Pandit were present at both venues.

Jackie Shroff, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Divya Dutta and Karanvir Bohra were spotted at the Gurudwara while Randhir Kapoor, Tanve Azmi, Naseeruddin Shah and Ratna Pathak, Sidharth Roy Kapur, Shyam Benegal, Vipul Shah, Amole Gupte, Pankaj Kapur and Supriya Pathak were present at the temple. The Bachchans, Amitabh, Abhishek and Aishwarya, were at Iskcon too. Om Puri forayed into cinema in the 1970s with some of the most definitive films of the time. Unfortunately, his troubled personal life took precedence over his exemplary work with reports of a fall-out with his second wife, former journalist Nandita Puri, over a tell-all book, and a rumoured reconciliation with his ex-wife Seema Kapoor, after their 1991 divorce.

“If the timings were different, it would have been easier to reach both the places. I share a rapport with both Seema and Nandita so I had to go. They could've organised it together but that didn't work out,“ informs singer Anup Jalota who has produced Puri's soon-to-release satirical comedy, Mr Kabbadi, which, incidentally, has been directed by Seema Kapoor and features her brother, Annu Kapoor, actress Sarika, and Vinay Pathak.

Jaspinder Narula points out that Puri was lucky to have his chautha in both a gurdwara and a mandir. “Whoever loved and admired Om ji can organise a prayer meet for him so why not his wives?“ she retorted.