Nana Patekar, the actor whose spare, unsettling intensity powered Parinda, Krantiveer and Ab Tak Chhappan, died on Thursday at the age of 76. A PTI interview he gave in December 2024 has resurfaced, and at its centre is a story that sounds almost impossible for any actor: he said no to Raj Kapoor.
The news closes a career of close to five decades, built on roles that felt less like performances than open wounds. Patekar was not a romantic lead or a song-and-dance star; he was the face of moral damage in a changing Hindi film industry.
The refusal that came from respect
Patekar was shooting at RK Studios when Raj Kapoor asked if he would act in one of his films. The offer would have been a dream for most, but Patekar turned it down. As he told PTI, Raj Kapoor was his father’s hero and the favourite of everyone in his home. He worried that if they ever disagreed about a scene, he would not be able to say so, and speaking up would feel like disrespect.
“If we ever have a difference of opinion over a scene, I would not be able to tell you anything,” Patekar said. He carried the same logic to two other giants: he declined offers from Dev Anand and V Shantaram for the same reason.
Three National Awards, and a friend’s quiet help
That uncompromising streak sat alongside a warmly loyal one. Patekar stayed close to Rishi Kapoor, with whom he starred as estranged brothers in the 1995 film Hum Dono. He also credited Marathi actor Ashok Saraf for carrying him through a difficult patch.
- He won the National Film Award for Best Actor for Krantiveer, and Best Supporting Actor for Parinda and Agni Sakshi.
- He received the Padma Shri in 2013 but said he did not feel he had done enough to deserve it.
- In 1979, when he was struggling, Saraf left a signed cheque and told him to fill in whatever he needed; Patekar wrote ₹3,000 and later repaid it.
The Saraf story is a reminder of how much of Bollywood’s middle generation leaned on one another before the paychecks arrived.
What he wanted next
Patekar said he wanted to build a shared home for veteran artistes who had worked hard but were financially struggling, so they could eat together and remember old days. He recalled that his mother scolded him after he won a National Award for playing the gangster in Parinda, saying the role made people hate her son. Yet a National Award, he said, was one honour he would never refuse because it came from the country.
Source: Hindustan Times