Nana Patekar’s Filmfare shelf is a lesson in range. Over nearly three decades, the Black Lady kept returning to him for roles that were violent, tragic and quietly terrifying, and sometimes all three at once.
A rare Filmfare record
Very few Hindi film performers have won the Filmfare award for playing both the hero and the heavy. Patekar’s record is built on five performances across 27 years, from Parinda in 1989 to Natsamrat in 2016.
The fascinating part is the spread. These are not five variations of one angry man; they are separate performance problems, solved with different registers of voice, posture and violence.
The five winning turns
- Parinda (1989) — Best Supporting Actor (Male) for Anna Seth, the underworld kingpin whose violent breakdowns made him feel both dangerous and wounded.
- Angaar (1992) — Best Actor in a Negative Role for Majid Khan, a land mafia boss played with a clinical, ambitious calm that stood apart from Anna Seth.
- Krantiveer (1994) — Best Actor in a Leading Role (Male) for a disowned alcoholic who turns into a people’s vigilante, carried by Patekar’s commanding monologues.
- Apaharan (2005) — Best Actor in a Negative Role for Tabrez Alam, a gang lord with a cool, political swagger and a gift for slipping out of trouble.
- Natsamrat (2016) — Best Actor in a Leading Role (Male) at the Filmfare Marathi awards for Ganpatrao Belvalkar, a retired stage legend broken by his children’s ingratitude.
Why it still matters
The Parinda and Krantiveer wins show an actor who could make a villain’s rage feel real and a hero’s conviction feel earned. By Apaharan, Patekar had learned that a villain can be scarier when he whispers than when he explodes. Natsamrat then proved that the same intensity could carry a family tragedy in Marathi.
Each award also maps a shift in how Bollywood used Patekar. In the early years, he gave the hero a villain worth fearing. In Krantiveer, he became the hero and turned his anger into a weapon for the common man. By Natsamrat, the industry was finally handing him a role where the anger crumbled into grief, and he won in Marathi for it.
For younger fans who know him mainly from films like Welcome, this list is a reminder that the comic rage had a much darker and more demanding foundation. If you want to see the range, watch Krantiveer and Natsamrat first, then double-bill Parinda and Apaharan to see how he reinvented the gangster archetype across two decades.
Source: Filmfare