The funeral procession for Nana Patekar didn't look like a Hollywood-style wake. It looked like Maharashtra. Pravin Tarde, the director behind the film 'Majha Majha Mandala', watched the scene unfold on Patekar's own farm in Donje, near Pune, and he wasn't happy with who was missing. The veteran actor died on October 8 in Goa, but the real story, according to Tarde, was the silence from the glittering city he had never fully claimed as his home. And that silence stung.
Tarde, appearing on ABP Majha's 'Coffee with Kaushik', didn't mince words. He pointed out that while 'a few thousand farmers' lined up for the last rites, the industry that made him famous was largely absent. 'The fact that Bollywood people did not attend the funeral does not diminish Nana's greatness. Bollywood is not bigger than Nana,' he stated. It’s a sharp jab at the hierarchy of celebrity, suggesting that the man who stayed true to his roots in Dhule was far more substantial than the actors who wear perfume and pretend to be earthy.
This isn't just a complaint about etiquette; it's a statement on identity. For Tarde, Patekar was never a 'Bollywood' actor. He was a farmer who happened to act. 'When did Nana ever say that he belonged to Bollywood? Nana always used to say that he was a farmer,' Tarde noted. The disconnect between the industry's performative grief and Patekar's actual life was stark. When a lesser-known actor dies in Mumbai, people line up in white, Tarde observed, but when the real deal passed, the industry kept its distance.
Still, it wasn't empty. Jackie Shroff, Anees Bazmee, Mehul Kumar, and producer Sajid Nadiadwala were there. Singer Suresh Wadkar, a close friend, paid his respects. But for Tarde, the presence of the rural community was the only thing that mattered. 'That farmer is more important than anyone in Bollywood wearing perfume,' he said. It’s a sentiment that resonates in a country where the gap between the city and the village often feels unbridgeable.
Patekar’s legacy now rests in the soil of his native village, far from the studio floors of Andheri. The controversy over who showed up is a minor footnote, but it highlights a truth Tarde is willing to speak: the man was bigger than the industry. And in Maharashtra, that’s the only thing that counts.