Oh Nana Patekar! My Nana, my Nana, my God! I just finished my play ‘Jaane Pehchane Anjane’ in Washington DC, and as soon as I came off stage, I found out about Nana Patekar. This is, this is just unbelievable! I am thousands of miles away from the country, and this,
news, this tragic news, coming right after the show is just impossible to process. The audience was applauding. I was receiving a standing ovation. But as I reached the wings, I learned that Nana Patekar is no more. Whenever I met Nana, he would pretend to be angry, and
I would always sing for him. My Nana re , na re, Nana re, I would give my life, don’t be angry with me. It’s terrible. It’s, I, it’s, it’s not fair. It’s not fair. Some people, you don’t think that they will ever go. Nana was one of them . Nana was larger than life. Nana had 01:21 the largest heart in the world. Nana’s anger was actually all kindness. It’s not right. He should not have gone. You feel like some people will live for 100 or 150 years. Nana was one of those people. I did many films with him. Spent so much time, so much time,
together. I was recently at the NDA, and I was passing through there. His house was nearby. In Khadakwasla, and I met him, and I told him I would come to your house next time. I am speaking a bit too loudly, trying to suppress my grief with the volume of my voice. But,
I don’t know how to say it, but he would have loved for me to celebrate the performance. And somehow or the other, I finished the performance. But No, he shouldn’t have gone. It’s wrong, this shouldn’t happen. This absolutely should not happen to some people. In,
his scolding, there was intimacy, there was a sense of belonging in his scolding. He used to scold for no reason. What, Anu? And he would call out of the blue, saying, “Hey, I saw your work!””What work you did, man!”” You do it so well, how do you do it,
tell me.” Brother, you were…you are one of the finest actors that I have ever seen on the Indian screen. From Samrat to so many others, Prahaar, and …oh! I don’t know how to react to this. I don’t know how to react to this . It’s so sad, it’s so sad. I just met,
him a couple of months, two months back . And he said, he would always say, ” Anupam, you are a very brave man, you take on the world.” I said I learned it from you, sir. Nana Patekar, it’s a legendary name, legendary work, legendary human being, legendary actor, legendary personality, legendary persona. Some people should not go. Not go! It’s shocking, it’s shocking, it’s unreal, and it’s, and it’s real at the same time. It is. And I…he was just 75. And a healthy, strong 75-year-old man, not old, a 75-year-young man. The,
very name Nana Patekar felt like a larger-than-life character. Many years ago, when I first met him, we did a film together. Madhuri was also in it, and he was in an army uniform, and when he met me, he said, “How, man, how did you do Saaransh? I couldn’t have done it.” I think that was his way of complimenting me. But I think I will, I will miss you. I will miss you more than I can ever say. I am trying my level best to, because I have to put on an act after the play, to meet everybody, take pictures with everybody,
in Washington, to tell everybody who was saying very good, very good; and I was carrying it in my heart that Nana is gone, man. So, all that pent-up emotion I had restrained is coming out now. It’s going to be a long night. It’s 12 o’clock at night, 12:27 at night here, and it’s tough. I am sorry to his family, to his son. And to everybody who loved him, and we have lost one of the finest, finest actors and human beings in India. India will remember him as one of the finest actors, a great human being, and a,
great son of the soil, a great patriot, a great, lively patriot; he would call a spade a spade. Everyone departs one by one, such is the nature of this world’s bonds; miss you, my brother.
