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His needs at the time were few; his patience, infinite. While waiting and hoping for a break in films, he began teaching acting at the private school which had just been started by Roshan Taneja. This gave him his daily bread, and for soul-food he started the theatre group Majma.

A small role in the Shyam Benegal film Bhumika came his way next, and was followed soon after by his first major role in director Govind Nihalani's Aakrosh.

Om found in the role an outlet for all his pent up passion, his frustrations and insecurities. And his fiery performance soon had producers and directors flocking to his doorstep. "To give me roles of villains or sidekicks, which, of course, I was not interested in doing," he recalls with a smile.

It was with Ardh Satya, the blistering 1984 Nihalani film about an honest cop trapped by an unimaginably harsh reality, that brought Om real success. "I then bought a car, a flat, all the material trappings of success," he grins.

But then, Ardh Satya was to remain the only real feather in Om's creative cap, at least as far as the Indian marquee was concerned. Films like Aaghat, Susaman, Arohan (which got his his first national acting award, but failed to get a release on the marquee), Satyajit Ray's Sadgati, Gautam Ghosh's Paar, to name a few in the 'art' or 'parallel' stream, and Patthar, Narasimha, Marte Dam Tak, Prem Granth and such on the commercial circuit - Om acted with customary flair in all of them, but failed to garner a tenth of the acclaim that was his for the Ardh Satya role.

All this would have soured the temperament of most people but then, Om is not 'most people'. "I have my emotional moorings in Indian cinema, but I look to the foreign scene for artistic satisfaction and money," he reveals.

It was thanks to the late Jennifer Kendall, wife of Shashi Kapoor, that he was hired for a role in Jewel In The Crown. Richard Attenborough then hired him for Gandhi, after which Om moved on to the Canadian film Sam and Me and finally Roland Joffe's City of Joy, in which Om played the part of the rickshaw puller who comes to Calcutta ad meets a foreign doctor in search of his roots.

"City of Joy did well in Europe and Japan but not in America - though I had pinned high hopes on it," recalls Om. "After this came a Canadian film called Burning Season. Then I did Wolf, directed by Mike Nichols, in it I got to do a very good scene with Jack Nicholson."

His latest release is the Gulzar epic, Maachis. And due for release are the likes of the British film Brothers in Trouble and My Son, both directed by the London-based Udyan Prasad, Gupt, (Rajiv Rai), Mrityudand (Prakash Jha), Zamir (Rajat Rawail), Pukaar and China Gate both by Raj Kumar Santoshi...

"I have some good roles, both here and abroad. And this kind of lull, when nothing really major happens, comes to all character actors - it's not just me, even Anupam Kher, Paresh Raval, they must also have felt frustrated at one point or other. Even Naseer - he may have said at one point that he was wasting his time in art films, but he does want to do good films even now."

Om is forthright when it comes to discussing his peers. Anupam Kher, he feels, is the most successful character actor of his time. "He has done so many films, he has been successful in terms of both money and fame. In terms of good work done, I guess Naseer tops my list, he has won national awards and earned a reasonable amount of money as well. Paresh (Raval) has also done reasonably well."

And how would he rate himself, on a scale of 100, in terms of success?