Nana Patekar and Dimple Kapadia starrer Krantiveer turned 30 on Monday. On the occasion, the film’s director Mehul Kumar shared several behind-the-scenes anecdotes about the National Award-winning film. He talked about Nana’s dedication towards his role and how the actor shot the entire film in his old clothes.The filmmaker also revealed that Nana was admitted to the hospital after falling ill, yet he refused to cancel the shoot and completed the climax in just one day.
In Krantiveer, Nana Patekar plays the character of a man who is thrown out of his home at a young age and grows up in a slum in Mumbai. Speaking to Bollywood Thikana, Mehul explained how Nana Patekar did not have a fancy wardrobe in the film and wore his own, unironed old clothes to stay authentic with his character.
He state that, “I wrote the script keeping Nana Patekar in mind. I told him that since your character is like this, we will not make new clothes for you. You give us your old clothes and we will shoot with them. We didn’t even iron his clothes and he agreed to do so. Later, I made new clothes and gifted them but all the clothes in the film are her own, including the slippers.”
Before Krantiveer, Nana had mainly played negative characters in films and this was the first time he was playing the role of a hero. Naturally, distributors were concerned about its ability to draw audiences to theaters, some even refusing to pay for the film. “Two distributors from Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh refused to support the film. He asked me, ‘Who will come to see Nana?’ But I explained to them that I cast Nana because he was suitable for the role.
Although distributors were skeptical of Nana, the actor never questioned his dedication to the project. During the conversation, Mehul Kumar told that the actor had shot the climax of the film while being ill. He told that, “Nana suddenly fell ill and hospitalized, and by that time we had confrim the climax and we had constituted a set in Film City. Nana was worried that if something happened to him, the film would remain incomplete.
He asked me if he could complete the climax scene in a day. I agreed to this and told them that I would install four cameras on the set. He asked me not to cancel the shooting and reached the set with a doctor. Everyone was worried about his health. Danny Denzongpa even asked me to cancel the shoot and I explained to him that I was ready to cancel it But Nana does not agree on this. I communicated to Nana and he asked for one hour to prepare. He gave the scene. No one will believe that we shot the climax of the film in a single day.
Dilip Kumar says he had a ‘hangover’ after watching Krantiveer: ‘Tell Nana Patekar, he’ll be stuck with this label for the rest of his life’
