Nana Patekar, 75, Had Dry Firewood Ready for His Own Funeral

Nana Patekar died on October 8 at age 75 after a cardiac arrest. As tributes poured in, photographer Atul Kasbekar offered one of the most personal memories: not a career montage but a stack of firewood the actor had kept for his own cremation.

In an Instagram note alongside a monochrome portrait, Kasbekar described a warm equation with Patekar even though the two did not meet often. “We didn’t meet often, but whenever we did, it felt like we’d met yesterday,” he wrote.

A dry pile for a dry-eyed farewell

During a photo assignment at Patekar’s farmhouse near Pune, Kasbekar was taken around the property. The actor showed him a pile of firewood set aside specifically for his own funeral. It had been kept dry, Patekar explained, because wet wood smokes—and he did not want people crying at his cremation only because the smoke got into their eyes.

Only Nana Saheb could turn his own cremation into a comedy routine.

Kasbekar called the loss a “punch in the guts” and signed off by saying there would never be another quite like Patekar.

Generosity without hierarchy

The same visit revealed the actor’s off-camera warmth. Kasbekar recalled that every assistant, spot boy and driver was seated in the main dining area, while Patekar personally walked around serving extra rotis and portions of his mutton. There was no hierarchy, no fuss.

Other details filled out the portrait of a man who could intimidate a set and spoil a crew in the same afternoon:

• He surprised Kasbekar by reeling off a dozen tricep dips with no warm-up at his gym.
• A video of that moment had gone viral earlier, and Kasbekar remembered it with the line, “Stone cold. No warm-up. Show-off!”
• Kasbekar described him as unpredictable, intense and fiercely individualistic—qualities that made the firewood moment feel entirely in character.

Why the firewood detail stays with fans

For an audience that watched Patekar play men who lived by their own rules, the firewood story does what a filmography cannot. It shows a star who was clear-eyed about mortality and still found a joke in it. That mix of dark humour, practicality and care for other people’s comfort is likely to become a defining memory of his farewell.

Kasbekar’s memory is not just a celebrity anecdote. It matches the Patekar fans felt they knew: unsentimental, generous in action, and funny at the moment you least expect it.

Last rites in Pune

Patekar’s final journey was scheduled for Pune on October 8. Ganesh Thorat, CEO of the actor’s Naam Foundation, which works in water conservation, said the mortal remains were expected in the city by around 5 PM. The body would be kept for a final darshan, with the last rites performed at Patekar’s farmhouse in Donje, on Pune’s outskirts. The ceremony was to be conducted with state honours.

Source: The Times of India