Nana Patekar, the actor whose face and growl made Hindi cinema feel dangerous, died on October 8 in Goa. He was 75. For a generation of viewers he was the moral nerve of films such as Parinda, Krantiveer and Ab Tak Chhappan. For Shah Rukh Khan, he was a mentor, teacher, critic and friend who never once flattered him.
A first meeting that set the rules
In a note posted on social media, Shah Rukh Khan recalled meeting Patekar early in his career. Nervous, he fiddled with his hair. Patekar slapped his hand away, SRK wrote, and told him not to do his hair like a hero because he was an actor. The Hindi line he preserves in the note is worth keeping intact: “Hero ki tarah baal mat bana… tu actor hai.”
The tribute describes Patekar as rough and honest, a man with a beautiful smile who told people what they needed to hear rather than what flattered them. He also remembered Patekar beating everyone at carrom and enjoying every win. “He would shout at you first, and then somewhere between the third or fourth insult, you realised you were being hugged,” Shah Rukh wrote. “He loved me, and I loved him back.”
The actor’s actor
Born Vishwanath Patekar, he made his debut in Gaman in 1978 and built one of the most distinctive careers in Hindi and Marathi cinema. The breakthroughs came quickly:
- Ankush, Pratighaat, Salaam Bombay! and Parinda established him as a force.
- Prahaar: The Final Attack, Angaar, Tirangaa, Krantiveer and Agni Sakshi extended that intensity.
- Khamoshi: The Musical, Ab Tak Chhappan, Apaharan and Raajneeti deepened it, while Welcome and Welcome Back revealed a comic softness.
That range — from Prahaar‘s soldier to Uday Shetty — explains a rare longevity. He won three National Film Awards and received the Padma Shri in 2013. His crime thriller The Confession is yet to release.
Why it matters
Shah Rukh Khan’s note is being read as more than a farewell. The advice he says he will carry forever — “hero banne ke chakkar mein actor mat khona,” or “in the pursuit of becoming a hero, don’t lose the actor” — is a compact warning to a star-driven industry. Patekar spent a career refusing the distance between the star and the character, and the tribute ends where it began: “Too soon my Hero Actor! RIP.”
He also wrote that Patekar has “left a void not only in the world of cinema but in the hearts of all Indians and the world.” The advice doubles as the standard by which the filmography itself can be judged.
Source: The Times of India
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