Nana Patekar, the actor whose low-burning fury and sudden violence made him one of Hindi cinema’s most distinct presences, died early on Thursday at his home in Dona Paula, Goa. He was 75.
Maharashtra will accord him a state funeral, honouring a career that moved between Marathi and Hindi film and a public life that, unusually, included time at the front during the Kargil War.
What happened
Dr Shekhar Salkar, Chief of the Oncology Department at Manipal Hospital, told ANI that Patekar was brought to the hospital in the early hours after becoming unresponsive at home. The actor had messaged a friend around 2:30 am saying he was not feeling well; the friend reached the residence around 4 am.
Medical staff tried to revive him for nearly an hour. The cause was a severe cardiac arrest.
Sixty days in Kargil
Among the stories resurfacing after his death is his time with the Indian Army during the 1999 war. In a 2024 interview with The Lallantop, Patekar said he had completed a commando course and was a national-level shooter, and that he wanted to go to the front.
He recalled the initial objection from officials: “No, no, we can’t allow a civilian.” After he spoke with then Defence Minister George Fernandes, he said, he was sent forward the same day.
Patekar said he spent around 60 days in places including Mughalpura, Dras, Leh, Kupwara, Baramulla and Sopore, eventually becoming part of the Quick Reaction Team. “When I went, I was 76 kgs, and when I came back, I was 56 kgs, in just two months,” he told the interviewer. He added: “Itna sa toh kuch hum kar sakte hain desh ke liye [At least we can do this for the country].”
An India Today report from August 1999 described him living with soldiers “for over a fortnight” as an “unofficial cheerleader of sorts.” He could not join the army, the report said, because his qualifications were not equivalent to graduation.
The screen legacy
Patekar made his debut in Gaman (1978) and built a body of work defined by moral anger and physical intensity.
- Parinda and Prahaar revealed his range in tough, internal performances.
- Krantiveer and Tiranga cemented his place in 1990s Hindi cinema.
- Khamoshi and Ab Tak Chhappan deepened his late-career reputation.
Prahaar was singularly personal. Before making the film, in which he played Major Pratap Chauhan and also directed, he trained intensely with the Maratha Light Infantry. A 1999 India Today report quoted him as saying:
“Our greatest weapon is not the Bofors, nor the AK, but our jawans.”
He remained active in recent years, appearing in Housefull 5, as a police officer in Vishal Bhardwaj’s O’Romeo, and in a cameo in Subedar alongside Anil Kapoor and Radhika Madan.
The tributes from the film industry and political figures underline how much the off-screen role mattered to his public. For much of his audience, the man and the major on screen had become hard to separate.
Source: Mint
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