Nana Patekar, the veteran Hindi film actor known for speaking his mind, died after a sudden heart attack on October 8, 2026. Among the interviews being revisited is a 2015 group conversation with Trade Guide before the release of Ab Tak Chhappan 2, in which he was asked whether he would ever enter electoral politics.
His answer was immediate.
Cinema was already active politics
Patekar said there was no need to join a party because acting in films and speaking on issues was, in his words, “active politics.” Cinema, he argued, was a large enough medium for him to say what he felt. Formal politics would be different.
“In proper politics, I won’t be allowed to say what I feel,” he said. “I will have to stay inside the fixed parameters of the party, which I can’t do. If I say something nasty to the party chief, he will throw me out.”
- He considered films and public commentary a form of political expression.
- Party discipline would have required him to defend positions he did not hold.
- He believed an actor should never contest elections.
The cow dung test
Patekar illustrated the problem with a blunt example. If someone from his party did something wrong, he would have to face the media and insist that it “wasn’t cow dung, it was Shrikhand.” The point was not comedy for its own sake; it was about the compulsion to spin in organised politics.
Speaking his mind
Asked whether his frankness landed him in trouble, Patekar said, “They are fools who think after speaking. The wise think before speaking.” He added that he always knew what he was saying.
He recalled that Balasaheb Thackeray was like a father to him. On one occasion, Patekar told Thackeray directly that he disagreed with a statement. People around him feared he would be beaten up, but nothing happened. The intention behind a statement, he said, had to be clear.
A warning that still lands
Patekar extended the point to all parties. Whether it was the BJP, Congress or Shiv Sena, he said, the duty was to work for the people who chose them. “Power is not your property,” he said. If parties kept fighting among themselves, voters would not choose them next time.
For readers who follow Hindi cinema’s history, the interview is a reminder that Patekar’s candour was not an act. It was the same quality that made him convincing on screen and uncompromising off it.
Source: Bollywood Hungama
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