The Indian actor Nana Patekar, who has died of a heart attack aged 75, first broke through in Mira Nair’s Salaam Bombay! (1988), and the Bollywood hits Parinda (1989) and Krantiveer (1994). These early credits established Patekar as a performer of rare versatility: he and Irrfan Khan remain the only performers to have won Filmfare’s best actor, best supporting actor and best villain awards (considered India’s “oscars”). Yet the question of whether Patekar was better suited to heroism or villainy lingered unresolved: allegations of sexual harassment and intimidation first made by his former co-star Tanushree Dutta in 2008 kickstarted India’s #MeToo movement when she raised them again in 2018.
Until that point, Patekar’s rougher edges had mostly been celebrated. As an actor, he demonstrated a baggy-eyed naturalism that spoke more to Bombay streetlife than Bollywood fantasy. He was given to writing out his dialogue until he had internalised it, and his growling line readings were both idiosyncratic and much imitated. Satyajit Ray counted among the actor’s most illustrious admirers, but apparently could not find a suitable project for him; Patekar instead had Nair to thank for launching him to international prominence in Salaam Bombay! as Baba Golub, the brutal pimp and drug dealer lording over an army of street children.
