Although the late actor Nana Patekar has not acted in any Malayalam films, filmmaker Bhadran once hoped to bring his Malayalam thriller ‘Iyer The Great’ to Hindi audiences with the late Bollywood actor playing the lead role originally portrayed by Mammootty. The director imagined a bigger adaptation of the film, which had also found an audience in Tamil Nadu. However, despite Nana Patekar’s enthusiastic response to the story, the Hindi remake never materialised.
Bhadran imagined Nana Patekar as Soorya Narayanan
After ‘Iyer The Great’ was released, Bhadran and producer Goodknight Mohan, also known as R. Mohan, discussed adapting the film for Hindi cinema. The Malayalam thriller featured Mammootty as Soorya Narayanan, a man who discovers he can foresee the future after a frightening incident. Bhadran believed the story could work on a larger scale and had Nana Patekar in mind for the central character.Goodknight Mohan, who was friends with Patekar, arranged a meeting between the actor and the filmmaker in Mumbai. Bhadran remembers being convinced that Patekar was the right choice for the Hindi version.“Nana was a good friend of Goodknight Mohan who arranged the meeting. I still remember candidly chatting with him and then broaching the storyline behind Iyer The Great. There was no one else who I could envision to reprise Mammootty’s role in the Hindi version. Nana had the looks and the figure to make him the Soorya Narayanan in Hindi,” Bhadran shared, as quoted by On Manorama.
The ‘Iyer The Great’ scene that excited Nana Patekar
During their conversation, Bhadran narrated the sequence that changes Soorya Narayanan’s life. The character climbs a tree to rescue his favourite parrot but ends up stranded high above the ground. When he looks down, he experiences vertigo. The incident becomes a turning point, leaving him with the extraordinary ability to predict future events.Nana Patekar was deeply impressed by the sequence, particularly the moment that captures the character’s transformation. Bhadran remembers the actor responding with an unexpected display of excitement.“I just told him, ‘The next day, it is a new dawn.’ He suddenly jumped up from the chair and hugged me, even biting my cheek. If you know him, you would know how expressive he is. He was completely blown away by that peak point of the film,” Bhadran said.
Why the Hindi remake never took off
Sadly, the proposed Hindi adaptation of ‘Iyer The Great’ remained at the discussion stage. Bhadran eventually moved on to other projects, including ‘Spadikam’, the Mohanlal-starrer that became an important film in the actor’s career.Nana Patekar had watched ‘Spadikam’, too, and Bhadran says he would have welcomed an opportunity to remake it in Hindi. “If he had initiated any discussions about remaking it in Hindi, I would have gladly obliged,” the filmmaker shared in an interview reported by On Manorama.
Nana Patekar was also considered for ‘Udayon ‘
‘Iyer The Great’ was not the only Bhadran film for which the director considered Patekar. While preparing the 2005 Malayalam film ‘Udayon’, he thought of the actor for Unni Vaidyan, a close friend of Kunju and Maya’s uncle. The role eventually went to Nassar.Nana Patekar reportedly liked the story but was reluctant to act in Malayalam unless he could dub his own lines. The language barrier ultimately prevented the collaboration.During the International Film Festival of Kerala in 2023, Nana Patekar reportedly said he had never been approached for a Malayalam film. Bhadran believes their unrealised discussions may explain the remark.“The projects I spoke to him about never materialised. That is probably what made him say that,” the ‘Spadikam’ director added.Nana Patekar, whose real name was Vishwanath Gajanan Patekar, passed away on October 8 at the age of 75 following a suspected cardiac arrest in Goa. The veteran actor was reportedly found unconscious at his residence early Thursday morning and was rushed to a nearby hospital. His last rites were performed later that night, and he was laid to rest with full state honours.
