Singer Usha Uthup remembered veteran actor Nana Patekar as one of the finest actors, a gentleman and a man with a sense of humour and a golden heart while speaking with NDTV. Veteran actor Nana Patekar died on Thursday morning after suffering a cardiac arrest at his home in Goa. He was 75.
Mourning the death of 'Salaam Bombay!' fame Nana Patekar, Usha Uthup said one cannot compare him with anybody else.
"He was one of the finest actors the world has produced. A hundred per cent gentleman, one of the finest actors, and a man with a sense of humour, and really a golden heart," she said.
READ | Actor Nana Patekar Dies At 75, Was Found Unconscious At His Goa Residence
Usha Uthup recalled the time she featured in a music video alongside Patekar. She sang the high-energy, cricket-themed promotional track "Wicket Bacha", composed by Pritam, from the 2007 Bollywood film Hattrick.
"Apni kismat ka tu hai god... Zindagi hai 22 gaz ki daud... Bat ko rakhale rakh chipka... Run toh bana le par wicket bacha..."
"He would always say, 'That's what I'm trying to do, wicket bachane ka (trying to save a wicket)'. And we would all laugh in the vanity van together... We are all really, really sad about this terrible void that has been created by his going away," she said.
Nana Patekar Death | "One thing everybody learned from him was to be 100 per cent honest": Singer Usha Uthup (@singerushauthup) remembers the late actor as she speaks to NDTV's @ParmeshwarBawa #NanaPatekar #NanaPatekarDeath https://t.co/yODGzkcz63
— NDTV (@ndtv) October 8, 2026
Talking about his work and what one could learn from just watching him act, Uthup focused on his "honesty".
"If somebody came and told him he did a fantastic role or a fantastic shot, he would always say, thank you. He would always tell me, 'I don't know why people have to be so overly modest and say, "Oh, I'm nothing in front of you".' He had a great sense of humour. That honesty, I think, has gone down to everybody who's been inspired by him in some way or another. And his anger, when he was on screen, was not acting. It was real anger that he could portray."
READ | Nana Patekar Suffered Cardiac Arrest, Doctors Tried CPR For 45 Minutes
Further talking about working with him, Uthup said Patekar "made everyone feel comfortable. He never had a superiority complex."
"He sat with all of us and had the same food that was provided to us on set. He was a real man's man... When the camera stopped rolling, he was good to all the spot boys. On set, he treated me like a little sister."
Lauding his conviction and versatility as an actor, Uthup said, "Whatever the role was, he (Patekar) could pull it off. Even if it was just taking his glasses off and putting them back in his pocket, there was an action to it. There was a character to it. I used to get scared just watching him in his angry scenes on screen. Only he could do it."
When asked how she would describe Patekar to someone who had never seen any of his work, any of his films or seen him in theatre, and what made him so distinctive and special, Uthup said, "reality".
"I think he was a real person, both off and on stage," she concluded.
READ | "We All Have To Go Some Day": Nana Patekar Spoke About Death 4 Days Ago
