Nana Patekar’s Forgotten Tamil Trip: The Story of Bharathiraj’s ‘Bommalattam’

Bharathiraja with Nana Patekar on the sets of ‘Bommalattam’

Today, as Indian cinema mourns the death of Nana Patekar, Tamil audiences may remember the acclaimed actor for his role in Rajinikanth’s 2018 film Kaala, directed by Pa Ranjith. But as early as 2008, he had an impressive outing in Tamil in a feature film: Bharathiraj’s Bommalattam.

The story begins in 2007, when the late film director Bharathiraja had an idea: a film within a film. Known in Tamil cinema for iconic films like 16 Vayathinile and Sigappu Rojakkal, Bharathiraja seemed excited about the idea, which included a twist at the end.

To play the lead role in the film – the role of the director – Bharathiraj went to Nana Patekar. “Initially I wanted to do it in Hindi only. So I contacted Nana Patekar for the lead role. Himesh Reshammiya was in charge of the music. Then we decided to do it in Tamil as well,” Bharathiraja told The Hindu at the time.

The shoot of the film, which stars names like Rukmini Vijayakumar, Arjun Sarja and Kajal Agarwal, among others, was not the smoothest according to Bharathiraj himself. “We (Nana and I) had friction here and there, but he is one of the best and he is so dedicated. He spoke his dialogues in Tamil, which made us all happy. Another talented actor in the cast is Arjun. It was Arjun who smoothed the ruffled feathers whenever Patekar and I got into an argument,” recalled Bharathiraja.

On the sets of Bommalattam, Nana Patekar was also impressed by late comedy actor Vivekha’s sense of humor. Though the Hindi actor didn’t understand why the unit was laughing at a Tamil joke made by Vivekh, he couldn’t contain his laughter when the comedian translated the joke into English. “I knew that Tamil cinema has the best techniques, but now I find that it has the best comedians,” Nana Patekar reportedly told Vivekh, to which the comedian responded by stating, “I told him that from NSKrishanan, Thangavelu, Chandra Babu, Nagesh to Vadivela and Manorama, we had the best female artists.”

Bommalattam, which hit theaters on 12 December 2008, was released with quite a lot of fanfare, with the director even challenging scribes from the press and media to guess the climax during a special screening. The Hindu Review of the film praised Nana Patekar’s performance, stating that his “natural, underplayed expressions and excellent body language make him a film connoisseur’s delight”.

Published – 8 Oct 2026 13:14 IST