Nana Patekar

Nana Patekar was born Vishwanath Patekar on 1 January 1951 into a Marathi family in Murud-Janjira, near Alibaug in present-day Raigad district, Maharashtra. His father ran a small textile painting business, loved plays and tamasha, and took his son to performances. Nana began acting in school plays in the village, and later recalled his father travelling from Mumbai to watch him in a play called Valmiki. When Nana was 13, someone close to his father took away the family's property and savings, and the family slid from middle class to poverty. In Class IX he began working after school, walking about eight kilometres to Chunabhatti to paint film posters for 35 rupees a month and a meal a day. He told the Times of India in 2015 that the hunger and humiliation of those years were his real acting school, and that he stopped eating sweets because he could not have them as a boy. His father, who never recovered from the loss, died of a heart attack when Nana was 28.

Patekar studied at the Sir J.J. Institute of Applied Art in Mumbai and then worked at an advertising agency. Alongside, he acted on the Marathi stage. The director Vijaya Mehta directed his first play, and he later said, "I am what I am because of Vijaya Mehta." The actor Smita Patil, who knew him from Pune, persuaded him to try films and took him to the director Ravi Chopra.

Patekar made his film debut in Gaman (1978) and spent the next decade in small and supporting parts in Marathi and Hindi films, including Aaj Ki Awaz (1984), Ankush (1986), Pratighaat (1987), Andha Yudh (1987, his first Filmfare nomination) and Mohre (1987). He played Nathuram Godse in the British miniseries Lord Mountbatten: The Last Viceroy (1986). After Mira Nair's Salaam Bombay! (1988), his crime lord in Parinda (1989) won him the National Film Award and Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor. He wrote, directed and starred in Prahaar: The Final Attack (1991) with Madhuri Dixit. The 1990s brought Angaar (1992, Filmfare Best Villain), Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman (1992), Tirangaa (1993) with Raaj Kumar, Krantiveer (1994, National Film Award, Filmfare and Screen awards for Best Actor), Abhay (1994), Hum Dono (1995), Agni Sakshi (1996, his second National Award for Best Supporting Actor), Khamoshi: The Musical (1996), Ghulam-E-Mustafa (1997), Yeshwant (1997), Wajood (1998), Yugpurush (1998), Kohram (1999) with Amitabh Bachchan and Hu Tu Tu (1999). In the 2000s he starred in Tarkieb (2000), Shakti: The Power (2002), Ab Tak Chhappan (2004), Apaharan (2005, Filmfare and Screen Best Villain), Taxi No. 9211 (2006), Welcome (2007), Ek: The Power of One (2009), Paathshaala (2010) and Raajneeti (2010). Later work included Shagird and the Marathi Deool (2011), The Attacks of 26/11 (2013), Dr. Prakash Baba Amte: The Real Hero (2014), Ab Tak Chhappan 2 and Welcome Back (2015), Natsamrat (2016), the Hindi voice of Shere Khan in The Jungle Book (2016), the Tamil film Kaala (2018), The Vaccine War (2023), Housefull 5 (2025) and O'Romeo (2026). He also sang playback in Yeshwant, Wajood and Aanch.

Patekar joined the Territorial Army as a captain in 1988 and trained for about three years while preparing Prahaar: The Final Attack, working with V. K. Singh, then a lieutenant colonel, who appeared in the film. During the 1999 Kargil War he served with the Maratha Light Infantry as a major. He retired from the Territorial Army in 2013 as an honorary lieutenant colonel.

In 2015, after watching a television interview with the family of a farmer who had died by suicide, Patekar set aside the 1 to 1.5 crore rupees he had and asked his friend, the Marathi actor Makarand Anaspure, to help distribute it. Anaspure took him to Beed to meet around 170 to 180 farmers' widows, and Patekar realised one-time help was not enough. In September 2015 the two registered the Naam Foundation in Pune. Patekar explained that the name came from the Marathi custom of applying a mark on the forehead "in the name of god" before beginning a task. The foundation gave immediate financial aid to families of farmers who had died by suicide (it says it has supported 4,940 such families) and expanded into water conservation, river rejuvenation, group farming, sewing clusters, education and village development in Marathwada and Vidarbha. Union Minister Nitin Gadkari called this work "noteworthy and significant" in his tribute.

Patekar married Neelkanti, a bank officer, in 1978. He told the Times of India that she earned 2,500 rupees a month when he made 750, and that whatever he became was because she encouraged him to do the work he wanted. Their first son, Durvasa, was born with serious health problems and died in early childhood, a loss Patekar said changed him. Their second son, Malhar Patekar, works in films. Published profiles say Nana and Neelkanti lived separately in later years. His mother, Nirmala Patekar, lived with him until her death on 29 January 2019 at the age of 99. He was known for a frugal life, living for decades in a small flat in Andheri, Mumbai, cooking for friends, and quitting a 60-cigarettes-a-day habit at 56. He also kept a home in Dona Paula, Goa.

Patekar was outspoken and famously blunt. He said he did not believe in God in a conventional sense, but continued to celebrate Ganeshotsav because his father had done so and his mother wished it. He turned down offers to join politics, saying that social reformers and actors are like national property and should not be divided, and that he could not defend a party's wrongdoing. He said his reputation for anger was a cover for the helplessness and inferiority he had felt as a poor teenager, and that he had lost his fear of death long ago.

Patekar is remembered as one of the most powerful screen presences of Indian cinema, with a clipped, explosive dialogue style that made scenes from Krantiveer, Tirangaa, Parinda and Welcome endlessly quoted. Along with Irrfan Khan, he was one of only two actors to win Filmfare Awards for Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor and Best Villain. His Marathi work in Natsamrat and as Baba Amte deepened his standing in Maharashtra, while the Naam Foundation made him a respected figure in rural districts far from the film world. Tributes after his death came from Nitin Gadkari, Riteish Deshmukh, Basavaraj Bommai, Suvendu Adhikari, D. K. Shivakumar, Rohit Pawar and many others.

Padma Shri (2013), presented by President Pranab Mukherjee at Rashtrapati Bhavan on 20 April 2013. National Film Awards: Best Supporting Actor for Parinda, Best Actor for Krantiveer, Best Supporting Actor for Agni Sakshi. Filmfare Awards: Best Supporting Actor (Parinda), Best Villain (Angaar), Best Actor (Krantiveer), Best Villain (Apaharan). Screen Awards: Best Actor (Krantiveer), Best Villain (Apaharan). Maharashtra State Film Awards for Best Actor (Raghu Maina, Gad Jejuri Jejuri). Filmfare Marathi Best Actor for Dr. Prakash Baba Amte: The Real Hero and Natsamrat. BFJA Best Actor (Hindi) for Ab Tak Chhappan. Zee Cine Award Best Actor (Marathi) for Natsamrat. Ananda Vikatan Best Villain for Kaala. Raj Kapoor Special Contribution Award from the Government of Maharashtra (2013).

In 2008 the actor Tanushree Dutta complained to the Cine and TV Artistes Association (CINTAA) that Patekar had harassed her on the set of Horn 'Ok' Pleassss. She repeated the allegation in 2013 and again in September 2018, when it helped launch the MeToo movement in Bollywood. An FIR was registered at Oshiwara police station in October 2018 against Patekar and three others. Patekar denied the allegations. In June 2019 the police filed a B-summary (closure) report saying there was no evidence to proceed, and describing the complaint as possibly malicious.

Patekar's last public appearance was on 4 October 2026, when he addressed the Samraat Club International installation ceremony in Dona Paula, Goa, dressed in a white kurta and gamcha. In the early hours of Thursday 8 October 2026 he was found unconscious at his apartment in Dona Paula, near Panaji, and taken to Manipal Hospital. Dr Shekhar Salkar of the hospital told ANI that despite 45 minutes of continuous CPR he could not be revived, and he was declared dead at 5:20am. His death was reported as a cardiac arrest. A medico-legal case was registered and a post-mortem was to be conducted. He was 75.