Veteran actor Nana Patekar died at his home in Goa on October 8, 2026, leaving Hindi and Marathi cinema without one of its most unflinching performers. The news came as a shock to fans who had followed him from stage to screen for decades.
Soon after his death, an older conversation about his film Natsamrat began circulating again. In it, Patekar explained why he took the role on camera but stayed away from the play that had made the character famous.
The Natsamrat ‘curse’ he chose to avoid
At an event, Patekar said every actor who had performed Natsamrat on stage had died of a heart attack. He named Dr Laagu, Dutta Bhatt and Chandrakant Gokhale among those associated with the play.
“Whoever has done Natsamrat, the play, has died of a heart attack.”
Patekar said he refused the play when it was offered and agreed to do the film instead. A film role, he believed, becomes “immortal,” while the play demanded far more from the performer. “Had I done that too, I would have died 10, 15, or 25 years back,” he said.
He was blunt about the stage legends who preceded him. “Dr Laagu and Dutta Bhatt were my reference when I was doing Natsamrat,” Patekar said, adding that his own work was nothing compared with the original play.
Final rites at his Pune farmhouse
Patekar’s last rites were performed on October 8 at his Pune farmhouse. His son Malhar Patekar consigned him to the flames at 11:30 pm.
Malhar said his father’s vision would continue through the Naam Foundation, the social organisation Patekar used to support people in need. That work, he said, would carry on.
Why Natsamrat matters to fans
The stage-to-screen choice Patekar described is part of what made him unusual. He treated the play and the film as two different responsibilities: one placed a heavy burden on the actor, he believed, while the other fixed the performance permanently for audiences.
- He avoided the stage version of Natsamrat, pointing to a pattern of heart attacks among its stage actors.
- He saw cinema as the medium that made a role permanent.
- He still credited Dr Laagu and Dutta Bhatt as his benchmarks.
- His son says the Naam Foundation will continue his social work.
That respect for the original stage performers, alongside his own film interpretation, is likely how audiences will remember his Natsamrat. Dimple Kapadia, remembering him on Filmfare, put it simply: “Aise actors kam hi milte hai life mein.”
Source: Filmfare