“Aa gaye meri maut ka tamasha dekhenge!” If you haven’t been living under a rock, this powerful dialogue uttered by Nana Patekar is from the 1994 film Krantiveer. Fans still remember Patekar’s final speech as Pratap Narayan Tilak before he is publicly hanged in the film.
Dilip Kumar, known as the tragedy king of Indian cinema, was greatly influenced by Krantiveer.
Mehul Kumar recalls Dilip Kumar reviewing Nana Patekar’s Krantiveer
In a recent interview with Bollywood Thikana, Krantiveer director Mehul Kumar reminisced that several prominent personalities from the film industry had praised the film after it became a success.
Mehul said that Dilip Kumar had seen the film in the theatre in 1994 and had asked him to sit next to the veteran actor.
Citing the late veteran actor’s reaction, the Krantiveer director said, “You have made such a film that I still have a hangover.” According to the filmmaker, the Tragedy King compared Krantiveer to Mother India, saying that he had seen the 1957 film in the same theatre.
He reminded that the Mughal-e-Azam actor had told lead actress Nargis that the label of Mother India will always be with him. Similarly, the label of Krantiveer will always be with Nana Patekar.
Nana Patekar wore his clothes in Krantiveer
Director Mehul Kumar also revealed that Nana Patekar did not have a fancy wardrobe in Krantiveer and that he wore his clothes to make his character authentic. Mehul revealed that he wrote the script keeping Patekar in mind and told the actor that his outfits were not styled for him.
The director of Krantiveer revealed that he asked Nana Patekar to wear his old clothes and keep them in his scenes without ironing them. The actor agreed to this and later received new clothes as a gift.
Mehul stressed that Patekar’s look was limited to his clothes and slippers.
When distributors refused to support Krantiveer for this reason, the director recalled
In the same interview, Mehul Kumar further spoke about how distributors were unsure about backing Krantiveer and some of them did not even want to invest in his film.
Kumar recalled the time when two distributors from Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh refused to support Krantiveer because they had doubts about Patekar’s ability to bring audiences to theatres before its release. He said the distributors were concerned that the actor was carrying the 1994 film on his shoulders without any big stars.
The director convinced him that Patekar was “the right actor” for the role. The distributor then agreed to invest a signing amount in Krantiveer provided he liked the film or else he would have to return the money to the filmmaker.
According to Kumar, Nana Patekar had mostly played villainous roles in films before Krantiveer and this was the first time he was cast as the hero in a film.
The action-crime film Krantiveer also featured Dimple Kapadia, Mamta Kulkarni and Atul Agnihotri in lead roles. It also featured Paresh Rawal, Danny Denzongpa, Tinnu Anand and Farida Jalal.
Patekar played the grandson of a freedom fighter who lives in a chawl in Mumbai. Dimple played a press reporter in the film. Paresh was cast in the role of the chawl owner. Atul played Paresh’s on-screen son and Mamta was cast as his girlfriend.
The 1994 film was remade in Telugu and Kannada languages as Punya Bhoomi Naa Desam and Parodi respectively.
Also read: Nana Patekar calls himself a ‘terrible man’ as he talks about losing his two-year-old son
