Veteran actor Nana Patekar died on 8 October at the age of 75 after a cardiac arrest in Goa. On Thursday evening, Shah Rukh Khan posted a tribute on Instagram for the co-star he first faced the camera with more than three decades ago.
A first meeting that became a piece of advice
Shah Rukh shared a still from their 1992 film Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman. He recalled being nervous on set and fussing with his hair, only to have Nana push his hand away. The advice, as Shah Rukh remembered it, was direct: “Stop fixing your hair like a hero, you are an actor.”
That line became the heart of the tribute. Shah Rukh wrote that Nana did not flatter anyone and never said what people wanted to hear. Instead, he said what they needed to hear — rough, honest and, in Shah Rukh’s words, with “the most beautiful smile.”
Mentor, critic and carrom champion
Shah Rukh described a bond that mixed bluntness with affection. Nana, he said, would scold you first, and by the third or fourth insult you would realise you were being hugged. He remembered a mentor, teacher, critic and friend who beat everyone at carrom and enjoyed every victory.
The post ended with the same lesson he had carried since their first shoot: don’t lose the actor in the chase to become a hero. Shah Rukh wrote that he wished he had time for one more conversation, another argument, another cup of tea and another game of carrom.
The films they shared
The two actors worked together twice. Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman arrived in 1992, early in Shah Rukh’s leading-man career, with Nana already the more seasoned presence. Their next and final film together was Shakti: The Power in 2002.
For fans, that makes a short but meaningful rewatch list:
- Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman (1992): the film where the advice was given.
- Shakti: The Power (2002): their last shared screen, a decade later.
Why the advice still matters
The line lands because it comes from a performer who valued craft over image. For an audience that has followed Shah Rukh’s long run as a leading man, it reads as a teacher’s warning that still applies long after the shoot ended.
Nana’s funeral will be held at his farm in Pune on Thursday. His body was expected to reach there by 5 pm for a darshan for fans.
His passing closes a chapter for a generation that watched him hold the screen with intensity. The tribute is a reminder that the lines actors tell each other on set can last far longer than a shot.
Source: Hindustan Times