He was only 13 then. After school, he would walk eight kilometres to Chunabhatti (eastern Mumbai) to paint film posters, earning Rs 35 per month and getting one meal a day. One of their relatives betrayed his father and usurped their property.
Life was tough. Nana Patekar didn’t have to go to any acting school. He learnt acting through hardships in real life.
“I was in Class IX, but that humiliation and hunger taught me so much that I didn’t need to go to any acting school,” the actor told The Times of India in an interview in 2015.
Nana Patekar was unpredictable as an actor. With films like Parinda (1989), Prahaar: The Final Attack (1991) and Krantiveer (1994) establishing him as a bankable star, Nana Patekar switched to comedies, such as the Welcome franchise, smoothly later in his life. Nana, who once said “I don’t have the fear of death from the beginning”, died on Thursday morning (October 8) at his Goa home.
According to hospital sources, doctors tried to revive him for almost 45 minutes after he was brought in, but there was no response.
The actor was declared dead at 5:20 am.
Came To Films For Smita Patil
Coming from a small village called Murud Janjira near Alibaug, Nana Patekar started doing theatre right from his school days and later joined the Sir JJ School of Art. Actor Smita Patil knew him, as he was from Pune.
Smita Patil took a reluctant Nana Patekar to Ravi Chopra for a role in Aaj Ki Awaz, and initially, he was offered a lousy role as one of the rapists.
“I was annoyed and was leaving just when Smita came. She asked me, ‘Why are you going?’ I abused the person who had offered me that role. And then I got a better role, which also was not great, but I got recognised for that film,” Patekar recalled of his initial days.
When Father Said ‘He’s My Son Too’
Nana’s father was into textile painting and ran a small business. He always liked tamasha, be it through films or plays. He would take him to see plays. Nana used to think that his father loved his older brother more, but his perception changed.
One day, he played the role of Valmiki on stage, and his father came all the way from Mumbai to see his play directed by Vijaya Mehta.
“I am what I am because of Vijaya Mehta, who directed my first play. Everybody liked my role very much. My father too had come to see my show at Shivaji Mandir. So he praised me to Vijayabai, who did not know that he was my father. She said to him, ‘He is my son.’ My father told her, ‘Fortunately, he is my son too,'” Nana had said in an interview.
Parinda, Prahaar, Krantiveer
If we have to pick three films that established Nana Patekar’s range as an actor, they are Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s Parinda, Mehul Kumar’s Krantiveer and his own directorial, Prahaar: The Final Attack. Nana Patekar, who used to call a spade a spade, portrayed characters onscreen, reflecting his unapologetic personality offscreen.
Prahaar
Nana Patekar, as Major VS Chavan, is portrayed as a nightmare to aspiring cadets. Nana proved that through his razor-sharp acting and cold stares. The film was nominated for Best Story at the 37th Filmfare Awards. Dimple Kapadia, Madhuri Dixit and Gautam Joglekar played supporting roles in the film.
Krantiveer
Nana Patekar, as Pratap Narayan Tilak in Krantiveer, established his own brand of patriotism. The film stars Dimple Kapadia, Atul Agnihotri and Mamta Kulkarni in the lead roles. Farida Jalal, Paresh Rawal, Tinu Anand and Danny Denzongpa are in supporting roles. It became the third-highest-grossing film of the year, additionally winning three Star Screen Awards, four Filmfare Awards and one National Film Award.
Parinda
Nana Patekar, as Anna Seth, was terrific in the Anil Kapoor and Madhuri Dixit film. Off-screen, Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Nana had a turbulent fight.
Recalling the incident, Chopra later said, “I’d seen Nana in a play called Purush, and it’s very important to say this, but in those days, I never used to curse. I was a very well-behaved young man from Kashmir. But it all changed because of Nana. When I’d direct him in a scene, he’d hurl abuses at me. I wondered how I would direct him at all. So that’s when I started abusing him back. I started swearing only because I had to direct Nana.”
Nana was supposed to do an emotional scene, but he was tired and wanted to call it quits for the day. Then this happened.
“Nana declared that he was too tired to continue and that he was going home. I told him, ‘Sure, you pay for the overheads then.’ He started swearing at me, I swore back, and in the scuffle, I tore his kurta. The cops on set said, ‘We’re here to protect you, and you’re fighting among yourselves,'” said Chopra.
In Ab Tak Chhappan, as Inspector Sadhu Agashe; in Shakti, as Narasimha; and in Rajneeti, as Brij Gopal, Nana Patekar built a brand of cinema he had always been associated with.
But he had a lot more to offer before the audience saw him in Akshay Kumar’s Welcome. Don Uday Shetty gave birth to a new Nana Patekar, one the audiences of the 1980s and 1990s had not seen before.
In recent times, he was seen in films such as Housefull 5, O’Romeo and Subedaar in a cameo alongside Anil Kapoor.
Nana Patekar: Private And Personal
Nana Patekar was separated from his wife, Neelkanti. But during an old interview, he had said that she would earn more than him during the initial days of his career.
“She is a Brahmin, and Brahmins are brainy people. Unlike her, I am a Maratha, a warrior. She is a very nice human being, really honest and content with whatever she has. She was working as an officer in a bank. And while I would make Rs 750 per month, as I got Rs 50 per show, she earned a monthly salary of Rs 2,500,” Nana had said then.
Nana Patekar used to smoke 60 cigarettes a day until he was 56. But his friend’s wife, who is more like a sister to him, lost her only son due to smoking. One day, when Nana was coughing, she told him, “Abhi kya kya dekhna hai mujhe?” He quit smoking then.
Beyond Films: Social Cause And Campaigns
Known for his simplistic life, Nana Patekar contributed money towards rebuilding flood-ravaged villages in Bihar through the charitable organisation Anubhuthi. All the monetary remuneration he obtained for his performance in the film Paathshaala was donated by him to five different charitable organisations.
He also provided financial aid to the families of farmers who committed suicide due to indebtedness brought about by drought. He distributed cheques worth Rs 15,000 to 62 families of farmers from the Vidarbha region in August 2015, and another 113 families from Latur and Osmanabad districts of Marathwada in September 2015. He even turned down a Rs 1.5 crore car in order to help farmer families reeling with suicides of their kin.
In September 2015, Patekar established the Naam Foundation with fellow Marathi actor Makarand Anaspure. The organisation works to provide aid to farmers affected by drought conditions in Maharashtra.
Using a Twitter campaign with the hashtag #IcareIsupport, Patekar was able to obtain funds to help Maharashtra’s drought victims.
Awards And Recognition
Patekar was given the Padma Shri for his dedication to the fields of films and arts in 2013, on the eve of the 64th Republic Day. Patekar was given the Raj Kapoor Special Contribution Award in 2013 by the Government of Maharashtra.
His needs were minimal, and he wanted to keep it that way. “My house is 750 sq ft. We bought it for Rs 1.1 lakh, but even today, I stay there only,” he told The Times of India in an old interview.
But his life was not without controversy. Actor Tanushree Dutta accused Nana Patekar of sexual harassment and intimidation on the sets of the 2008 film Horn ‘Ok’ Pleasss, an incident that sparked India’s #MeToo movement.
In his last public appearance, at the Samraat Club International installation ceremony in Goa on October 4, Nana said, “I don’t know whether I will be here tomorrow or not.”
He didn’t know, perhaps, that his words would come true.
Goodbye, Nana Patekar.
Also Read | Actor Nana Patekar Dies At 75, Was Found Unconscious At His Goa Residence
