Nana Patekar died on October 8 at 75. He was found unconscious at his residence in Dona Paula, Goa, and was taken to Manipal Hospital, where doctors declared him brought dead.
The news reached Anupam Kher backstage
Anupam Kher said he had just completed a performance and taken the curtain call when his director Gajendra told him, “Nana is no more.” He still had to meet people, pose for photographs, smile and sit down for a meal while absorbing the news. “It was terribly difficult,” he wrote on Instagram.
Kher said he believed Nana would have wanted him to finish his work, fulfil his responsibility to the audience, and only then remember him.
‘Mar gaya toh kya hua? Sabhi marte hain’
The tribute turned on a line Kher imagined Nana himself saying about the very idea of a tribute: “Mar gaya toh kya hua? Sabhi marte hain” — “So what if I died? Everyone dies.” Kher described him as direct and unpretentious, with his own way of saying even the most difficult things.
That refusal to soften was the common thread in the industry’s tributes.
- Rajinikanth said he could not believe his “dear friend Nanaji” was no longer with them.
- Paresh Rawal remembered him as “insanely honest and intense” and offered “love and respect for ever.”
- Manoj Bajpayee said Patekar’s journey gave hope to actors who came to Mumbai, showing that craft, individuality and being true to yourself could be enough.
Why it matters
Nana Patekar belonged to a generation of actors for whom screen authority came from craft rather than packaging. The directness that friends remembered was not a side note to his stardom; it was the stardom. His filmography is the record: Krantiveer, Agni Sakshi, Ab Tak Chhappan, Raajneeti, Natsamrat and Welcome, across Hindi and Marathi cinema.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi also acknowledged that contribution to Hindi and Marathi cinema, The Times of India reported. For readers, the practical response is straightforward: return to the films. Anupam Kher wrote that whenever he missed his friend, he would watch his performances.
The record now passes to those films — a body of work that needs no tribute beyond the next viewer who watches it closely.
Source: The Times of India
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