EXCLUSIVE! Nana Patekar on ‘Gadar 2’ fame Anil Sharma's Vanvaas: ‘I don’t like crowds, huge buildings, cars, I am scared…’ | Not Just Bollywood

Nana Patekar chose the quiet life of the village over the glitz and glitter of city life. And it was a conscious decision for him. And it was a conscious decision for him.

Dressed up in kurta and pajamas, in an exclusive interview with Firstpost, he pours his heart out when talking about family relations and why he is a rural person despite being a Bollywood actor.  He says, “I don’t like crowds, huge buildings, cars, I am literally scared of all these (badi daar laagta hai).” Nana is one of the best craftsmen in the industry, but he prefers to stay away from the limelight.

Edited excerpts from the interview:

Nana, why did you go back to the village?

To learn one needs to be like a blotting paper. I am not a sophisticated person; I am from a village. I have lived in the city for a few years, but neither the city life could accept me nor could I accept the city life. I don’t like crowds, huge buildings, cars, I am literally scared of all these (badi daar laagta hai).  So I went back to the village. But once I went back to the village, I realised that there are many problems closer to the Indian soil which can be expressed through films.

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Nana, what do you have to say about _Vanvaas_ and what made you agree to the project?

Nana: What I realised during the making of Vanvaas, the problems of children distancing themselves from parents are very similar all over the world.  Thankfully, we don’t have father’s day and mother’s day and to show love we don’t have to wait till 14th February. You will revisit the feeling of family life through this movie. _Vanvaas_ makes us realise that we don’t need to go to the temple all the time. Our parents are our gods.

Nana, since you have a son what do you have to say about the father-son relationship shown in Vanvaas?

 Nana: Father’s relation with children is the toughest. A mother has a pallu hide and cry, but a father swallows his own tears and is unable to express their grief. Everybody thinks that a father is tough, but that is not the truth. He isn’t tough, he is helpless.

There are times when we get to hear that a father is dead, but a child is unable to come to perform the final ceremony. There is a friend of mine who expired recently. One of his sons turned up for the funeral, the other one was unable to come. When I asked one of the sons who was present as to where is your brother? He had to say, he didn’t get leave. He also said when my mother expires he will be there. I couldn’t just digest what he had to say.

Nana, what do you have to say about cinema changing and how every character is important?

Nana: I always say if you have watched Guru Dutt’s films, whether it is Kaagaz Ke Phool or Pyaasa, you will see Johnny Walker. Those are serious stories again with a good dose of comedy and it is entertaining.

And if you see the artists around the lead actors in Vanvaas, they are equally brilliant. Everybody’s role is important in the film. Every character in the film is important and shouldn’t be used like a side role.

Anil Sharma, what made you make this film Vavaas?

 Anil: The film will make you realise that it’s the father’s job to bring up the children and it is the children’s job to take care of the father in his old age.  When you bring up a child you forget about everything, you take leave from office to attend your child’s parents-teacher meetings and annual days.

Then comes a day when you grow old, then you become a child and that time you need your son/daughter to take care of you. People are forgetting the father-child relation and how important it is. Vanvaas will make you understand the importance of this bond which we tend to forget in a nuclear family. Children are getting busy in their life and they should. But they should remember that a father is lonely.

The subject of the film is intense and very serious, but it is wrapped in humour. Starting from Nana Patekar to Utkarsh to Rajpal Yadav, everybody’s role has humour wrapped in it.

Everybody wants to see entertainment in Anil Sharma’s film, but it has a strong message and an emotional connection. It is a very impactful film.

WATCH the trailer of Vanvaas here: