A regular fixture and familiar face in cinema and stage, versatile actor Nana Patekar passed away from a sudden cardiac arrest at 75, on October 8, 2026. With a career spanning five decades, Patekar was best known in the Marathi industry for playing the leads in “Deool” and “Natsamrat,” among many more. He was relegated to a character actor or supporting roles in Bollywood. Nonetheless, Pateker effortlessly exuded main character energy in any role, even outshining the leads. His trademark ticks/mannerisms and delivery marked by his distinct Maharashtrian/Marathi accent or twang served as fodder for countless mimicry artistes/impressionists as well.
There are, of course, aspects of the actor’s off-screen behavior and persona I can’t gloss over nor dismiss (and neither should his fans), and which should no longer be normalised or enabled either. This write-up isn’t meant as a distraction from the same but instead a fond reflection of the characters that Patekar brought to life , as well as splendid works of cinema he was a part of/that I grew up watching.
1. ‘Ab Tak Chappan,’ ‘O’Romeo,’ ‘Shagird’ and More
While Patekar donned many hats as an actor, he was most in demand, one might even add, almost type-cast as a stern cop, often in mufti. It was as if this particular archetype was tailor-made for the actor.
It all kicked off with “Ab Tak Chhappan,” in which he played Inspector Agashe, a vengeful encounter specialist with a high body count hunting down his wife’s killers. Later, he would go on to portray Joint Commissioner Rakesh Maria in “The Attacks of 26/11” (based on the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks), and two years prior, he also headlined the gritty action thriller “Shagird,” as senior inspector Hanumant Singh. Despite these characters following a similar template, Patekar’s acting never felt repetitive or phoned in, and one was able to distinguish each cop from the next.
It thus felt befitting, that he would yet again appear as a cop/handler training a henchman working for the mafia to be his inside-man, stealthily sniffing out a den of deadly gangsters, in one of his final Bollywood outings, “O’Romeo.”
2. An Affectionate Fater in ‘Khamoshi: The Musical’
Patekar’s tender performance as Joseph Braganza—a deaf and mute fisherman mourning the untimely death of his young son—enabled him to showcase his versatility. He moved beyond just his image of the quintessential angry young man in the ’90s (which he gained after previously starring as the hot-headed hero in “Krantiveer”). He conveyed Joseph’s joys and simultaneously anguish/heartbreak in a silent and subdued fashion eventually nabbing a Filmfare nomination in the ‘Best Actor’ category.
3. Principal Aditya Sahay in ‘Paathshaala’
“Paathshaala” is an underappreciated social drama, which paired Patekar opposite his then up-and-coming “O’Romeo” co-star Shahid Kapoor for the first time. If featured the veteran actor as Aditya Sahay, a headmaster who runs his school with an iron fist and prioritises his own personal gains over the young over-burdened students and helpless faculty. Despite its timely message, this movie failed to find commercial success upon release, yet Patekar left a mark as the cold and distant Principal Sahay.
4. A Manipulative Cabbie in ‘Taxi No. 9211’
In a role and movie that both flew under the radar, Patekar played the anti-hero Raghav in the dark comedy and thriller “Taxi No. 9211.” He was effective in an everyman role as a spurned-yet-sympathetic cabbie with street smarts. He struggles to make ends meet and inadvertently starts a beef with a rich, arrogant passenger and party animal played by John Abraham.
5. Brij Gopal in ‘Raajneeti’
In the same year as “Paathshaala,” Patekar was part of the ensemble cast of “Raajneeti,” playing Brij Gopal. A modern take on the Indian epic “Mahabharata,” the Prakash Jha directorial brilliantly captured complex political hierarchy and dirty politics, and Patekar struck a fine balance between a fatherlike figure—mentoring fresh faces to enter politics—as well as a cunning senior politician with his own hidden agenda. This performance earned him yet another Filmfare nod.
6. Don Uday Shetty in ‘Welcome’
In a ‘welcome’ change from his intense characters, Patekar was a hoot as the comical gangster, Don Uday Shetty, in the popular comedy of errors, “Welcome” (reprising the role in its forgettable sequel). He aptly captured the frustrations of the level-headed Uday as he attempts to reign in his more dim-witted, trigger-happy step brother Majnu Bhai (played by Anil Kapoor), resulting in hilarious, slapstick scenarios. The actor also shared screen space with the late Mushtaq Khan who passed away in September (Khan was well-known for his iconic “Hockey ka Khiladi” line in the movie). Scenes of Uday pretending to be an impeccably dressed vegetable vendor and humorous one-liners such as the character muttering, “Control, Uday” under his breath whenever a stressful situation arose continue to circulate as memes.
7. A Brief Stint in the Horror Genre, ‘Bhoot’ and ‘Darna Mana Hai’
Patekar also dabbled in the horror genre in the early 2000s with cult classics such as “Bhoot” (which reunited him with auteur and frequent collaborator Ram Gopal Varma) and the short segment “Ghostly Lift” from the anthology “Darna Mana Hai.” He played an inspector investigating suspicious deaths at an apartment complex in the former and a hitchhiker who is in for one hell of a late-night ride in the latter.
