<img style="float: left;" title="Mahesh Manjrekar" src="https://images.mid-day.com/images/images/2026/oct/Mahesh-Manjrekar-op-oct_1791502455_s.jpg" alt="Mahesh Manjrekar" width="150" height="72" />People like Nana Patekar don&rsquo;t die. We always feel he is there. He had that fire and strength in whatever he did.
I directed him in <a href="https://www.mid-day.com/mumbai/mumbai-news/article/Marathi-theatre-lost-its-Natsamrat-Chief-Minister-Uddhav-Thackeray-on-Shriram-Lagoo-22288160" target="_blank" rel="none noopener">Natsamrat </a>[2016]. When I told Nana, &lsquo;Let&rsquo;s do this&rsquo;, he said yes. It was just a verbal commitment. Nana was like a possessed man working on the film; he was like a 60-year-old child who got a toy.&nbsp;
On the first day of the shoot, Nana came, sat on the monitor to see the scene. Then by mistake, some wire got loose, and the next scene&rsquo;s dialogue did not get recorded, and Nana started firing the sound recordist. On the second day, I told Nana, &lsquo;We need to hire a new sound recordist and a cameraman&rsquo;. When he asked why, I said, &lsquo;They are scared of you as you [yell at] them. They get nervous.&rsquo; He just looked at me quietly, went to those two guys, and hugged them. From that day on, I did not have a single problem. He was like that &mdash; always expressing immediately what he felt, and there was no malice in it.&nbsp;
<img title="(From left) Nana Patekar and Vikram Gokhale in &lsquo;Natsamrat&rsquo;. Pic/Youtube" src="https://images.mid-day.com/images/images/2026/oct/nana-nine-oct-b_1791502406_s.jpg" alt="(From left) Nana Patekar and Vikram Gokhale in &lsquo;Natsamrat&rsquo;. Pic/Youtube" width="1280" height="720" />(From left) Nana Patekar and Vikram Gokhale in &lsquo;Natsamrat&rsquo;. Pic/Youtube
He was a perfectionist in his work. I worked with two of the greatest actors in Marathi cinema and theatre, Vikram Gokhale and <a href="https://www.mid-day.com/entertainment/bollywood-news/article/nana-patekar-dies-at-75-following-cardiac-arrest-at-goa-home-23653931" target="_blank" rel="none noopener">Nana Patekar</a>.&nbsp;
After Natsamrat was complete, he just hugged me and said, &lsquo;We have made a great film&rsquo;. I miss him so much. I&rsquo;ll never be able to work with him.&nbsp;
Every time he signed a film, he used to call me. The last thing he told me was that he was doing a Raju [Rajkumar] Hirani film. I feel so sad that the movie [will] never [get] made. Both of them would have been magic together.&nbsp;
I came to London recently, and on Wednesday night, I was scrolling through Instagram and saw him reviewing a book he had read. I wondered why he was looking pale. I told my wife, &lsquo;I will call him first thing tomorrow morning&rsquo;. I went to sleep with that thought, and at 3 am [London time], I got a call that he is no more. That video felt like him saying goodbye to me before he went.
As told to Upala KBR

Director Mahesh Manjrekar recalls late actor Nana Patekar working like “a possessed man” in Natsamrat and his reaction to the landmark movie. 

Mahesh Manjrekar recalls directing Nana Patekar in Natsamrat

Seema Biswas recalls working with Nana Patekar in Khamoshi, and reuniting with the late actor in Shakti Shalini

Director Mahesh Manjrekar recalls late actor Nana Patekar working like “a possessed man” in Natsamrat and his reaction to the landmark movie. "He was like a 60-year-old child who got a toy," the filmmaker says

Mahesh Manjrekar recalls Nana Patekar working on Natsamrat like a 'possessed man'

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