Nana Patekar died on October 8, 2026, at 75 after a cardiac arrest. Photographer Atul Kasbekar paid tribute with a monochrome portrait and a story that captures the actor’s singular wit: Patekar had kept a stack of dry firewood ready for his own cremation.
The firewood he kept dry
Kasbekar wrote on Instagram that he shared a warm relationship with Patekar. They did not meet often, but each meeting felt like they had met the previous day. He described the actor as “Unpredictable. Intense. Fiercely individualistic.”
The centrepiece of the tribute is the discovery Kasbekar made at Patekar’s Pune farm. Nana showed him a stack of firewood prepared for his own funeral and explained that he kept it dry because wet wood smokes. He did not want people crying at his cremation only because the smoke got into their eyes.
“Only Nana Saheb could turn his own cremation into a comedy routine.”
That line, from Kasbekar’s post, captures the “spectacularly morbid humour” he said the actor carried even about death.
Generosity before the punchline
The farm visit was not only about the joke. Kasbekar recalled a shoot for one of his photo series, and the meal that followed:
- Every assistant, spot boy and driver was seated in the main dining area.
- Nana personally walked around serving extra rotis and helpings of his famous mutton.
- Kasbekar called it “No hierarchy. No fuss. Just extraordinary generosity.”
He also remembered Patekar pulling off a dozen tricep dips in the farm gym, stone cold and with no warm-up, a moment that had gone viral at the time.
Last rites with state honours
The actor’s mortal remains are expected to reach Pune by around 5 p.m., followed by a final darshan. The last rites will be performed at his farmhouse in Donje on the outskirts of Pune, with state honours, according to Ganesh Thorat, CEO of Patekar’s Naam Foundation, which works on water conservation.
For Hindi film fans, the firewood story is not a rumour or a punchline alone. It is a memory from a colleague who knew him, and it sits next to the generosity Kasbekar describes — the same man who served mutton to a crew could joke about the smoke at his own cremation.
Source: Hindustan Times