Nana Patekar

Vishwanath Patekar, commonly known as Nana Patekar, is an Indian actor, writer and filmmaker and is commonly known for his style of dialogue delivery and his acting skills. The versatile actor has been involved in Theaters, Bollywood Hindi movies as well as Marathi movies. He is also known for his generous donations and being a patriot. In 2016, when the state of Maharashtra was suffering from drought, he donated generously and helped the families where farmer suicides occurred. He is also a sketch artist and served in the Indian army for a while. He is a three time National Award winner and also holds the record of being the only actor to win Filmfare Awards in the Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor and Best Villain categories.

Nana Patekar was born on 1^st January 1951 in Murud-Janjira village of Raigad district to Dinkar Patekar and Sanjanabai Patekar. His father was a businessman and had a small textile printing business whereas his mother was a housewife. He also has two brothers, Ashok and Dilip Patekar. Nana completed his schooling from Samarth Vidyalaya, Mumbai and later joined the prestigious Sir J.J Institute of Applied Arts in Mumbai. Since his college days, Nana had a keen interest in acting and he started to participate in different inter-college dramatics and also used to write scripts. After graduating, Nana started to concentrate on his acting. He made his debut in 1978 in the movie 'Gaman' as a supporting actor and his character in the movie was titled as Vasu. From 1979 to 1984, Nana then acted in Marathi movies like Sinhasan, Bhalu, Raghu Maina and Savitri. In 1984, he appeared in his second Hindi movie 'Aaj Ki Aawaz' and played the character of Jagmohandas. Nana's next successful movie was in 1987 and he played the character of ex-constable Karamveer in the movie 'Pratighat'. In the same year, he appeared in 'Mohre' and received critical acclaim for his acting skills.  In the 1988 released movie - Salaam Bombay, Nana played the role of Baba and portrayed the negative role in the movie. His acting skills and the way he portrayed the villain role was highly appreciated by Bollywood. In 1989, Nana appeared in the movie titled 'Parinda' and had a supporting actor role. His role in the movie was appreciated and also led him to win his first National Award and a Filmfare Award in the Best Supporting Actor category for the movie. From 90's Nana started experimenting in his career and tried to play different roles. Nana gave his voice for the animated character of Sher Khan in the animated series of Jungle Book (Hindi). He turned director with the movie 'Prahaar: The Final Attack' where he himself became the lead and was co-starred by Madhuri Dixit. For his role in the movie, Nana underwent actual training for his role as an Indian Army Officer and was also awarded with the Honorary Captain's Rank. He was even part of the Territorial Army in early 1990's. In 1992, Nana’s negative role in the movie 'Angaar' earned him a Filmfare Best Villain Award. Though Nana Patekar had seen widespread critical acclaim and was a famous actor, he became a public name with the masses after the release of 'Krantiveer' in 1994. His acting and dialogue delivery in the movie became very famous with the masses and was widely appreciated by the critics. The movie led him to win the National Film Award for Best Actor. He also won the Filmfare Award and Star Screens Awards in the Best Actor category for the same movie. Later in 1994, he appeared in a children's film titled Abhay and portrayed the role of a ghost. His role received critical acclaim and the movie was successful in grabbing two awards in the National Film Festival of 1994. In 1996, his character of being a wife beater in the movie 'Agni Sakshi' was appreciated by everyone. He also displayed his talent of being a versatile actor by playing the role of a deaf father in the 1996 release 'Khamoshi: The Musical'. His role in the 1997 release 'Yeshwant' was critically appreciated and even received huge appreciation by the audience. In the movie, he even did some playback singing. He played the role of a schizophrenic in the 1998 release 'Wajood' and also did playback singing in the movie. One of the most famous movies of Nana's career was the 2005 release 'Ab Tak Chhappan' where he played the role of an encounter specialist. The movie is still remembered for the performance of Nana in the film. He also tried his hand in comedy and appeared in the movie 'Welcome' in 2007 and he played the role of a powerful crime lord of Dubai. After his success in the movie Welcome, he then appeared in 'Taxi No 9211' as a taxi driver and it was one of a kind movie with Nana’s awesome dialogue delivery. He played the negative role in the movie 'Apaharan' and his performance in the movie led him to win the Filmfare Award in the Best Villain category as well as the Star Screen Best Villain Award yet again. Nana started to work with the Marathi cinema and starred in the Marathi film 'Deool' in 2011. His next Marathi movie release was in 2014 when he starred in the movie 'Dr. Prakash Baba Amte -The Real Hero' and his role in the movie was appreciated by everyone. He later in 2015, starred in the sequel of two of his movies. His first sequel was the movie 'Ab Tak Chappan 2', and  'Welcome Back'. In 2015, he starred in a Marathi movie titled 'Natsamrat' where he played the role of Ganpatrao Appa Belwalkar. The movie was a film adaptation of the drama Natsamrat. In 2016, Nana lent his voice to 'Shere Khan' in the Disney adaptation of the highly successful movie 'The Jungle Book'.

Nana was married to Neelakanthi and they have a son named Malhar Patekar. Nana's marriage life did not go well and they divorced later. Known for his simple lifestyle and generous donations, Nana established an organization titled 'Naam Foundation' with the aim to provide aid to farmers who are suffering from severe drought conditions in Maharashtra. After receiving a cash price of 10 Lakhs from the Raj Kapoor Award, he donated the entire amount to the drought relief activities in Maharashtra. He also provided cheques worth NR 15,000 to 62 families in Maharashtra in September 2015.