Doctors tried to revive him for around 45 minutes, but he could not be saved and was declared dead at approximately 5:10 am. Veteran actor Nana Patekar died in the early hours of Thursday after suffering a cardiac arrest at his residence in Goa. A medico-legal case has been registered and a post-mortem is expected to be conducted.
Chief of the Department of Oncology at Manipal Hospital, the actor was found unconscious at his apartment and was taken to a private medical facility, according to Dr Shekhar Salkar. Dr Salkar said Patekar remained in asystole, meaning there was no electrical activity in his heart, throughout the resuscitation attempts.
His major breakthrough came with Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s Parinda, for which he won the National Film Award for Best Supporting Actor. For an actor who spent more than four decades in the film industry and earned considerable wealth, Nana’s life away from the camera was strikingly modest. Nana Patekar had shared the Andheri home with his mother Nirmala Patekar for several years. He often travelled between Mumbai, Pune and Goa. The farmhouse was known for its simple wooden interiors and terracotta flooring rather than an extravagant celebrity aesthetic. The actor cultivated crops such as wheat and paddy there and was reportedly known to share the proceeds with farmers and labourers. His other properties included a home on Law College Road in Pune, a residence in Goa and property in his native Murud. The family’s financial situation changed drastically after a close relative reportedly cheated them, leaving them without their wealth and savings. He was still young when his family went from being financially secure to struggling to survive. The experience of poverty and the humiliation that came with it stayed with him even after he became a successful actor.
In Mumbai, he continued to live in a 1 BHK apartment in Andheri that he had reportedly purchased decades ago for around ₹ 1.1 lakh. The approximately 750-square-foot home is now estimated to be worth around ₹ 3 crore. Following her death in January 2019, he continued to stay there whenever he was in Mumbai. He also owned a 27-acre farmhouse in Khadakwasla near Pune, where he was reportedly involved in farming. At 13, he began working to help support the family. After school, he would reportedly walk several kilometres to paint film posters, earning around ₹ 35 a month along with food. Nana Patekar made his film debut with the 1978 film Gaman.
