‘My first memory of him is everybody standing scared and so terrified of him’, Sutapa Sikdar remembers Nana Patekar on the ‘Khamoshi: The Musical’ set

Nana Patekar, who passed away on Thursday at the age of 75, was a feared presence on the sets of ‘Khamoshi: The Musical’ in 1996. Dialogue writer Sutapa Sikdar, then a newcomer, has now shared how the veteran actor treated her with unexpected warmth.

Sutapa Sikdar on her first days with Nana Patekar

‘Khamoshi: The Musical’ starred Manisha Koirala, Salman Khan, Seema Biswas and Nana Patekar. Sutapa Sikdar and director Sanjay Leela Bhansali were both new to the industry, while Nana Patekar was already a respected name in cinema and theatre, known for his short temper. Speaking to SCREEN, Sutapa Sikdar said, “My first memory of him is everybody standing scared and so terrified of him on the sets of ‘Khamoshi’. I don’t know why I was scared of him. I was scared otherwise because it was my first commercial set. But I don’t know why, but he took to me. We spoke and had a very good time. After Khamoshi, he’d also invite me to his home during Ganpati. But as Mumbai is, I’m very bad at keeping in touch with people.”

The scene that made Nana Patekar angry

Sutapa Sikdar recalled that she wrote one scene without discussing it with Nana Patekar, as it focused on his on-screen wife, Seema Biswas, and daughter, Manisha Koirala. This left the actor “very angry”. She said, “It was a terrifying moment. Who was I? I was a nobody, but he still came to me at night and said, ‘I know you’re angry. You’re not talking to me.’ I said, ‘Anger scares me. My father used to get really angry in my childhood. So, I feel a lot of helplessness with anger.’ He took it so well.”

Why Sutapa Sikdar says the industry lacks grace today

Nana Patekar later explained that his outburst was not planned. He was getting ready for a very intense scene in which his character repeatedly beats his own head out of frustration. Even so, Sutapa stood by her view that his behaviour had not sat well with her.She added, “It was so generous and gracious of him to take sh*t from a young girl who’s writing dialogues for the first time. Grace is what we lack today. And what we lack today is that the industry doesn’t know how to nurture talent. If this was Hollywood, we’d know how to use people like Nana and Irrfan in a much better way.” She was also remembering her late husband, actor Irrfan Khan, who died of cancer in 2020.

State funeral announced for Nana Patekar

Maharashtra Cultural Affairs Minister Ashish Shelar announced on Thursday that Nana will be given a state funeral. He said the Devendra Fadnavis government took the decision in view of the actor’s unmatched contribution to Marathi theatre and to Marathi and Hindi cinema. The last rites of the Padma Shri recipient and three-time National Award winner will take place at his Pune farmhouse at 4 pm on Thursday.