Naseeruddin Shah and Nana Patekar never worked together except a brief overlap in Welcome Back.Despite Nana Patekar and Naseeruddin Shah having worked extensively in films and theatre for over four decades, the two veteran actors rarely shared screen space. Apart from a brief overlap in Anees Bazmee’s 2015 comedy Welcome Back, they never really appeared together on screen.Naseeruddin Shah regrets not working with Nana PatekarIn a conversation with SCREEN, Naseeruddin said that along with “plenty of thoughts and memories” with Nana, he also has “plenty of regret” that he never got the chance to work with the actor, who died at the age of 75 on Thursday. “I loved and admired the man,” added the A Wednesday actor.Gul Panag says Nana Patekar was ‘exceptionally fit’Gul Panag shared screen space with Nana Patekar in Aejaz Gulab’s 2015 sequel to Shimit Amin’s 2004 cult crime drama Ab Tak Chhappan. While Nana reprised his role of Inspector Sadhu Agashe, based on encounter specialist Daya Nayak, in Ab Tak Chhappan 2, Gul played Shalu Dixit, a crime reporter.“I’m absolutely shocked by Nana’s passing,” Gul Panag told SCREEN.“What stays with me is how large-hearted, giving, and accommodating he was. He was one of the nicest people I’ve met in this industry. He was exceptionally fit, which makes this news even harder to take in. That he was an actor par excellence goes without saying. I’ll remember the person I had the privilege of working with just as fondly as the extraordinary actor we have lost,” she added. Gul Panag and Nana Patekar in Ab Tak Chhappan 2.Anjum Rajabli’s strange encounters with Nana PatekarEven before he met Nana Patekar, screenwriter Anjum Rajabli was already aware of how “people on film sets would get intimated by his volatile and abrasive personality”, often dubbed “offensive.”“But of course, there was no doubt about his talent, which would explode on the screen, mesmerising his growing legion of fans,” argued Rajabali.Story continues below this adNana Patekar was a “natural choice” for the role of Brij Gopal, based on Krishna in the Mahabharata, in Prakash Jha’s 2010 political thriller Raajneeti, which Anjum Rajabali co-wrote. “Given their personal friendship, Nana trusted him (Prakash Jha) completely and undoubtedly made the cunning but compassionate strategist come alive in the film,” said the writer. Nana and Prakash had already worked together on the 2005 crime drama Apaharan.Anjum Rajabali also recalled an occasion when a disagreement with Nana Patekar during the promotions of Raajneeti led to a heated exchange. “I did have a run-in with him one night during the promotion tour of Raajneeti when we traveled together from the party to our hotel. In a perfectly amicable conversation, when we disagreed on a point, he suddenly got angry and used aggressive language. I had to immediately stop him and insist that he take back his words. He was taken aback by my reaction, but given that I insisted, he did apologise.”Though the matter was settled then, Rajabali admits the heated exchange “infused a degree of tension in our equation.” But that didn’t stop Nana from inviting him and his writer-director friend to his Pune farmhouse for a script narration around 12 years later. “Belying all the anxieties that my friends had, Nana behaved with such warmth and personal affection. He cooked delicious mutton curry for me specially, sitting on the ground, all the while speaking with genuine personal affection. And we regaled each other with our accounts of the idiosyncratic contrariness of film people,” Rajabali recalled fondly.Also Read — Manisha, Ranveer, Shatrughan pay tribute to Nana Patekar Story continues below this adThe script, inspired by a play of William Shakespeare “instantly appealed” to Nana Patekar, who already possessed a “knowledgeable and nuanced understanding of theatre and natyashastra.” “Nana Patekar was a uniquely complex personality, with a troubled mind. And despite filmmakers referring mostly to the difficulty in working with him owing to his volatile nature, he continued to be in great demand. And this was not just because of his talent and his compellingly charismatic screen persona, but also the surprising grace and fairness that was as much a part of his personality,” concluded Rajabali.