When Muzaffar Ali remembers the late Nana Patekar, he starts in a Dadar theatre in 1976, not on a film set. The filmmaker was casting Gaman and watched a 25-year-old actor in a Marathi adaptation of The Threepenny Opera. The performance was quick, sharp and stayed with him long after the stage lights went down.
In an exclusive interview with Hindustan Times, Ali said the young actor became vital to his life from that day. He cast Patekar in Gaman, giving him his first screen credit.
A performance of speed and precision
Ali described the newcomer as “a Kalari sword—swift, precise and dangerous,” a compliment aimed at both his words and his body language. He was not a face shaped for the camera, Ali felt, but part of an emerging Marathi theatre wave he wanted to absorb into the film. Patekar became one of the young forces he discovered in that process.
Theatre roots that changed the screen
For Ali, Patekar was “not manufactured for Bollywood.” That phrase explains a lot. He arrived from a performance culture in which an actor had to hold a live audience before facing a camera. As a result, his silences carried weight, his lines had an edge, and he occupied a role instead of simply performing it.
That training also made him useful beyond acting. Ali remembered that Patekar was a graphic designer who handled stickers, publicity material and outdoor media. Their association moved naturally between cinema, theatre, design and life.
Here is what stands out from the recollection:
- Stage first: Patekar learned to command an audience before the camera arrived.
- Designer too: He looked after publicity and outdoor media for Ali.
- 50-year bond: Their friendship outlasted Gaman and spanned several creative worlds.
The lighter side of a long friendship
The pair also had an easy comic rhythm. When they were called on stage together, Patekar would tease that Ali owed him five thousand rupees—and would never accept it even if it were returned ten times over.
Why the memory matters now
For fans going back to Gaman, the interview makes Patekar’s screen presence easier to place. Ali counted him alongside Smita Patil as a new face of Indian cinema rising from Maharashtra—someone who carried the sharpness of theatre and the immediacy of the street into every frame. He did not merely act a role, Ali said; he occupied it.
Where to begin with Patekar
For younger celebrity watchers who know Patekar mostly from his later intensity, Gaman is the natural starting point. It captures him before stardom had a script for him, already in command of silences and sudden movement.
The loss, for Ali, leaves a vacuum that is difficult to fill and a debt that cannot be repaid. Gaman now stands as the first record of that unrepeatable energy.
Source: Hindustan Times
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