Mahesh Manjrekar Reveals Nana Patekar Had Signed a Rajkumar Hirani Film

Following the demise of Nana Patekar, filmmaker Mahesh Manjrekar recalled his close bond with the veteran actor and shared several revelations in interviews.

While Nana was known to be part of Maddock Horror Comedy Universe’s Shakti Shalini and in talks for Tiger Shroff’s zombie comedy, Mahesh Manjrekar revealed to Mid-Day that the actor had also signed a film with Rajkumar Hirani.

Mahesh Manjrekar stated, “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.”

Mahesh also recounted a memory from the sets of the Marathi classic Natsamrat (2016), which he directed. He described an incident on the first day of shooting where Nana scolded the sound recordist while watching a scene on the monitor, making the crew nervous. The following morning, Mahesh told Nana that the sound recordist and cameraman needed to be changed because they could not work under pressure. According to Mahesh, Nana then hugged both of them, abused them slightly, and the work proceeded smoothly afterwards, describing him as being "like a child."

Reflecting on the actor's passing, Mahesh told Mid-Day about seeing an Instagram video of Nana reviewing a book while in London. Noticing he looked pale, Mahesh planned to call him the next morning, only to receive a call at 3 am (London time) that he had passed away, noting that the video felt like a final goodbye.