Nana Patekar, the actor whose five-decade career moved between Hindi and Marathi cinema, died on October 8, 2026, at the age of 75. He was found unresponsive at his Goa residence after severe chest pain, taken to Manipal Hospital, and declared dead at approximately 5.20 am. Among the tributes, director Anil Sharma has offered a memory that complicates one of the industry’s durable labels: Patekar, Sharma says, was among the easiest actors he ever directed.
Warmth beyond the camera
Sharma, who directed Patekar in the 2024 family drama ‘Vanvaas’, described him as a warm, unassuming presence. In an interview with Mid-Day, the ‘Gadar’ director recalled that Patekar would sometimes serve food to people on set, and on other occasions cook for the whole crew himself.
“When someone says Nana Patekar, I think of how jovial he was, and the ease that he worked with. Sometimes on sets, he would serve food to people, other times he would cook for everyone,” Sharma said.
That ease extended off set. Sharma remembered Patekar walking long distances in rural areas to help underprivileged communities, particularly on water-related problems, as part of the actor’s wider social work. It is a side of Patekar that coexisted with his intense screen image, and one Sharma clearly wants remembered.
A filmography that carried its own force
Patekar’s career earned acclaim across films that demanded very different registers:
- ‘Parinda’ and ‘Krantiveer’ for their grit and moral pressure.
- ‘Agni Sakshi’ and ‘Ab Tak Chhappan’ for characters suspended between violence and duty.
- ‘Natsamrat’ for its stage-trained, theatrical command.
- ‘Vanvaas’, his last film with Sharma, which now reads as a quiet valediction.
The breadth of that work is why the director’s comparison carries weight. Sharma dismissed the old reputation that Patekar was difficult to work with, calling it untrue.
The ‘difficult actor’ question
“The talk about him being difficult to work with never had any truth in it,” Sharma said. “I would say that after Dharamji [Dharmendra], Nana Patekarji was the easiest actor to work with.”
For a filmmaker who has built large-scale populist dramas, the Dharmendra benchmark is significant. Sharma’s formulation turns a common framing on its head: Patekar’s intensity on screen was not, in his experience, a sign of friction on set. It was craft.
The ‘Gadar 3’ meeting that won’t happen
Sharma also revealed that he and Patekar had discussed working together on ‘Gadar 3’. That conversation now becomes an unfulfilled wish, a detail that matters to an audience that follows franchise casting and the roads not taken in Hindi cinema.
He last spoke to Patekar a few months ago and had planned to visit during Ganpati, but could not make the trip. Reflecting on the missed opportunity, Sharma said: “Now I feel jo karna hai, turant karlena chahiye (Whatever needs to be done, should be done immediately).”
The tribute leaves readers with a simple prompt: rewatch ‘Vanvaas’ with Sharma’s note in mind, and take the director’s regret as a reminder of how quickly collaborations can become memories.
Source: The Times of India
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