Vishwanath "Nana" Patekar

Vishwanath "Nana" Patekar was born on 1 January 1951 in the coastal town of Murud-Janjira, Raigad District, Maharashtra, into a Marathi family rooted in simplicity and hard work. His father, Gajanan Patekar, ran a textile business; his mother, Nirmala, kept the home. From the very beginning, Nana was cut from a different cloth — a man who would go on to electrify Indian cinema for nearly five decades while never once losing the quiet, unassuming soul beneath the fierce exterior. After schooling at Samarth Vidyalaya in Mumbai, he pursued a Commercial Arts Diploma at the prestigious Sir J.J. Institute of Applied Art. But it was the theatre that truly claimed him. Under the mentorship of the legendary director Vijaya Mehta, he trained and performed with the Rangayan theatre group, absorbing a discipline and craft that would define everything that followed. He made his film debut in 1978 with Gaman, and for the next decade built his range quietly — until Vidhu Vinod Chopra's Parinda (1989) changed everything. His portrayal of the ruthless gangster Anna was an eruption of controlled menace, earning him his first National Film Award for Best Supporting Actor and announcing to Indian cinema that a singular talent had arrived. What followed was a career of breathtaking range. Krantiveer (1994) won him the National Film Award for Best Actor. Agni Sakshi (1996) brought a second Best Supporting Actor honour. Alongside Irrfan Khan, he remains the only actor to have won Filmfare Awards in three categories: Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Villain. He also directed Prahaar: The Final Attack (1991) — a project so deeply personal that he trained for three years with the Indian Army's Maratha Light Infantry, eventually serving with the Quick Reaction Team during the 1999 Kargil War. In 2013, the Government of India awarded him the Padma Shri. Yet for all his intensity on screen, Nana's private life was a study in deliberate simplicity. He lived in a 750-square-foot Mumbai apartment purchased for ₹1.1 lakh, avoided fancy cars and glamour, and celebrated his son Malhar's birthdays in orphanages. He gave away prize money to drought relief and, in 2015, co-founded the Naam Foundation with actor Makarand Anaspure to support Maharashtra's battered farming communities. He grew his own vegetables, maintained a daily fitness regimen, and was described by those who knew him best as a Sufi-like figure — utterly unattached to wealth, relentlessly attached to craft. Nana Patekar passed away on 8 October 2026 at his residence in Dona Paula, Goa, at the age of 75. He is survived by his wife Neelkanti and son Malhar. Indian cinema lost an icon; those who loved him lost a man impossible to replace.