News of his passing
Veteran actor Nana Patekar died on Thursday, October 8. The Times of India report on his passing noted a remarkable body of work, and it has also returned attention to a personal story Patekar told in a 2024 NDTV interview: the death of his father, whom the family could not afford to treat.
The hospital nights
In that interview, Patekar described a financial reality that improved only after he entered the film industry. “Initially, I earned a little, and then I started earning a lot. But when my father was ill, I didn’t have the money to pay for his treatment, and he died in the hospital,” he said.
He and a friend, unable to stay inside the hospital overnight, sat outside on the stairs or the footpath. They played Antakshari while waiting for word on his father’s condition.
“We weren’t allowed to stay inside overnight, so we would sit outside and play Antakshari. My friend was there with me. You never knew when someone would come out and tell you that your father was no more,” he said.
Why the regret stayed
Patekar framed the loss as a matter of timing. By the time film work brought real money, the chance to pay for better care had passed.
- He was earning only a little when his father fell ill.
- The family could not afford better medicines or a better hospital.
- He spent the nights outside the hospital in uncertainty.
- Even years later, the memory brought him to tears.
“If I had had the money, I could have got him better medicines and taken him to a better hospital. But I couldn’t do that. That hesitation stays with you. Even today, when I remember those days, my eyes fill up with tears,” he added.
What this adds to his record
For a publication that covers Hindi cinema as a record, the passing is an occasion to connect two parts of a life: the performer the public cheered and the hardship that preceded the applause. Patekar’s own telling did not present his success as a cure. It presented it as money that arrived too late.
For readers who track Hindi cinema as history rather than a feed, the 2024 interview matters now for a simple reason. It locates the actor’s intensity in a specific, unmovable experience: he knew what it felt like to wait outside a hospital without the means to change what was happening inside.
Source: The Times of India
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