Veteran actor Nana Patekar died on October 8 at the age of 75. Manipal Hospital said he was brought in around 4:30 am and declared dead by 5:30 am after doctors tried cardiac massage for 45 minutes to an hour. A medico-legal case was filed, and his body was taken to Goa Medical College for a post-mortem. He is survived by his wife Neelkanti and son Malhar.
For Hindi film audiences, the news brings back two sides of Patekar: the intense actor known for angry, gritty roles, and the unexpected comic star who made Welcome unforgettable. The second act almost never happened.
A phone call he did not want
On The Kapil Sharma Show season 2, director Anees Bazmee recalled his first call with Patekar about Welcome. When Bazmee said he wanted to narrate a film, Patekar asked, “Kai ko?” At the actor’s home, Patekar said he did not want to hear the story. Instead, Bazmee said, the actor asked him to swear on his mother that the film was right for him.
Bazmee did not take the shortcut. He insisted that Patekar hear the full narration, and the two sat through nearly three hours of it. Afterward, Patekar hugged him and, in Bazmee’s telling, said:
“Main kacchi mitti hai, tere set pe aayega, jis roop mein dhalna hai dhaal lena.”
Bazmee also pushed back on the popular image of Patekar as a difficult actor. While people often said Patekar had a temper, Bazmee found him one of the easiest actors to work with.
Why Uday Shetty became permanent
Welcome released in 2007 with Akshay Kumar, Katrina Kaif, Paresh Rawal and Anil Kapoor in the lead cast. Patekar played Uday Shetty, a feared underworld don who can intimidate almost anyone but becomes helpless when it comes to his sister Sanjana’s marriage.
- His on-screen pairing with Anil Kapoor’s Majnu Bhai became the film’s comic heart.
- Lines such as “Control, Uday, control” and “Kya karun, maar bhi nahi sakta isse, pyaar jo karta hai mujhse” became popular culture.
- Welcome was a major box office success, and Patekar returned for Welcome Back but did not feature in Welcome To The Jungle.
What to do with the grief
The simplest tribute is to queue up Welcome and watch the rhythm Patekar built with Kapoor. The part is a reminder that casting against type, combined with a director who insists the actor hear the entire script, can create something no one predicted.
For fans, the clip from The Kapil Sharma Show is also worth a rewatch: a veteran actor trading his usual intensity for trust, and a director refusing to skip the story.
Source: Hindustan Times