Nana Patekar: What Sanjay Dutt did was ‘wrong’

 

When veteran actor Nana Patekar spoke to Pooja Kulkarni and unveiled his plans for his son Malhar Patekar and said he has no reason to refuse to work with Sunny Leone

Nana Patekar

We see you anchoring some great music stage shows. Any plans of singing?

I only listen to music and don’t listen to anybody else. I learnt classical music for 19 years but then my teacher told me ‘please don’t sing for the wellbeing of your listeners’. On a serious note, I am fond of classical music. Recently I got some classical songs of senior artistes Ghulam Ali Khan, Aamir Khan and the likes recorded on my iPod and I feel richer than anyone else as I have that treasure with me. I listen to classical music while working out at the gym. It doesn’t let your body’s rhythm get disturbed.

There are reports of Anil Kapoor and you refusing to act with Sunny Leone.

It’s not true. I am willing to act with anyone. I don’t have the right to call anyone bad. For whatever reasons Leone chose to be what she is, I still don’t have any right to criticise her. I can definitely refuse to act with someone if I don’t want to, but why should I. I don’t know about Anil.

And what about your stand of refusing to do films with actor Sanjay Dutt?

Have you seen me working with him in the past 20 years? I can only do this much from my side as I believe what he did was wrong. We can’t step on two stones at a time.

There has been a lot of speculation about your son Malhar debuting as an actor. So is he likely to act in a movie soon?

Acting is a different ball game altogether and if Malhar feels like, he will act. But as of now, he is only interested in direction. He has assisted in some projects including Ram Gopal Varma’s 26/11. Now he will be assisting me in my untitled project which I am writing-directing and also will be acting in. I always wanted to do something different with Malhar. My film is based on a father-son relationship. It will be a simple and emotional film, very unlike Nana, without any violence and hard-hitting dialogues. In fact, it will have a lot of silence. Now that I have completed shoot for Ab Tak Chappan 2 and Welcome Back, I will get time to work this project.”

(The interview was first published in Times of India. Photo credits: Facebook profile @nanapatekar)