Amitabh Bachchan Stopped KBC to Salute Nana Patekar: “An Incomparable Artist”

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2026

The Indian film industry lost one of its fiercest voices on Thursday. Nana Patekar — the firebrand of Parinda and Krantiveer, a three-time National Award winner, and the rare movie star who spent his fame on drought-hit farmers — died at 75 at his home in Goa. Hours later, the industry’s biggest star stopped his game show to say goodbye: Amitabh Bachchan paused Kaun Banega Crorepati 18 to deliver an on-air tribute to his Kohram co-star, calling him an “adwitiya kalakar” — an incomparable artist.

The salute When Big B stopped the game

Sony TV shared the video Thursday night, filmed on the KBC set. Speaking in Hindi, Bachchan told the audience that Patekar’s passing was a loss “not only to the Indian film industry” but a deeply personal one for everyone who knew him — describing him as “an unparalleled artist, a friend, a well-wisher, and an exceptional social worker,” per IANS’s translation of the address. He remembered Patekar’s fearlessness, his simplicity, and his courage to speak the truth plainly. “Some people leave our lives,” he said, “but their voice, their acts of compassion, and the lessons they have taught us remain within us. Nana was one of those rare people.”

The two men went back decades — they co-starred in Mehul Kumar’s 1999 action thriller Kohram — and Bachchan said in closing: “A personal salute to you, Nana. And a respectful bow to your art, which you lived with complete honesty and dedication.” He also recalled Patekar’s appearance on KBC season 16, when the actor donated his prize money to social work and spoke about connecting personally with farmers in Maharashtra’s drought-stricken villages. The show, for once, wasn’t about the prize. It was about the man.

The actor Five decades of controlled explosions

Born Vishwanath Patekar on January 1, 1951, in Murud-Janjira on Maharashtra’s Konkan coast, he came to cinema the long way — through Marathi theatre and the Sir J. J. Institute of Applied Art in Mumbai, then a 1978 film debut in Gaman followed by a decade of supporting parts. The breakthrough was Parinda (1989): as the volatile gangster Anna, Patekar didn’t just steal Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s film, he rearranged what a Hindi-film villain was allowed to be — and won his first National Film Award for it.

What followed was one of the great runs in Indian acting. Krantiveer (1994) won him the National Award for Best Actor. Agni Sakshi (1996) brought a third. He wrote, directed and starred in Prahaar: The Final Attack (1991); served in the Territorial Army; played the encounter specialist in Ab Tak Chhappan (2004), the comic don Uday Shetty in Welcome (2007), and a broken stage legend in the Marathi triumph Natsamrat (2016). The Padma Shri came in 2013. His instrument was unmistakable — the pause, the stare, the voice that could drop to almost nothing and then detonate — and he played gangsters, soldiers, cops, fathers and clowns without ever losing the sense that anything could happen next.

The range kept widening late into the career: Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Khamoshi: The Musical (1996), Prakash Jha’s political epic Rajneeti (2010), Ram Gopal Varma’s The Attacks of 26/11 (2013) — in which he played the commissioner of police during the Mumbai attacks — and a steady presence in Marathi cinema and theatre, the roots he never abandoned. When the news broke Thursday, the tributes came from across the industry — colleagues, admirers and audiences across India and beyond, as The Cine Bulletin reported — but Bachchan’s carried a particular weight: two contemporaries, two institutions, one of them stopping his show to mark the other’s exit.

The crusader The fame went to the farmers

Here’s the part of the obituary that mattered most to Bachchan’s tribute — and the part that set Patekar apart from every peer. In 2015, he co-founded the Naam Foundation with actor Makarand Anaspure, in direct response to the agrarian crisis and farmer suicides in drought-hit Maharashtra. The foundation started with financial assistance to bereaved families and grew into water conservation, rural livelihoods, education and healthcare. This wasn’t ribbon-cutting charity; Patekar personally visited villages, and his KBC 16 appearance — the one Bachchan remembered on air — was essentially a fundraiser, with his winnings going straight to the cause.

Patekar was found unconscious at his Dona Paula residence in the early hours of Thursday and rushed to the hospital, where doctors worked for around 45 minutes; he could not be revived, and his son Malhar confirmed the death. The reported cause was cardiac arrest. He was cremated with full state honours at his farmhouse in Pune — the state’s final salute to a man who never much cared for salutes, only for showing up.