Actor Nana Patekar Dies: How his iconic screen persona lived beyond cinema through ads

Nana Patekar was never the conventional Bollywood star. His appeal came from the intensity of his performances, the unmistakable voice, the pauses, the anger and, eventually, the comic timing that made even a few words instantly recognisable. Nana Patekar died today, October 8, at the age of 75, leaving behind a body of work that extended beyond cinema.

His career stretched across Hindi and Marathi cinema, beginning with Gaman in 1978 and eventually taking him through films such as Parinda, Angaar, Tirangaa, Krantiveer, Agni Sakshi, Khamoshi: The Musical, Ab Tak Chhappan, Apaharan, Raajneeti, Welcome and Natsamrat. He won National Film Awards for Parinda, Krantiveer and Agni Sakshi, and was awarded the Padma Shri in 2013.

But Patekar's relationship with popular culture extended beyond films. His voice and mannerisms became so identifiable that advertisers could build entire campaigns around the persona audiences already associated with him.

One of the best examples came with Vikram Lion Tea's 2018 television commercial, in which Patekar played a seemingly ordinary, older man confronted by a group of arrogant bikers. After taking a sip of strong tea, he delivered the now-famous line, "Baap ko bhej, tere bas ki baat nahi hai." The advertisement worked because it did not try to make Patekar behave like a conventional brand ambassador. Instead, it amplified the qualities audiences already associated with him: restraint, authority and a sudden burst of aggression.

The same strategy returned years later when Patekar reprised his Welcome character Uday Shetty for a Jar App campaign. The fintech brand used his familiar comic persona and turned his catchphrase into "Control... CONTROL!", this time directing the anger towards uncontrolled spending and poor saving habits.

That is perhaps where Patekar's advertising value was different from a typical celebrity endorsement. Brands were not simply buying his face. They were buying familiarity.

His performance as Uday Shetty in Welcome had already turned him into a pop-culture reference, while films such as Krantiveer and Parinda had established the serious, hard-hitting side of his screen identity. His ability to move between those worlds gave advertisers more than one recognisable Patekar to work with.

He also appeared in Tata Sky's Maharashtra-focused campaign, using his comic timing and regional familiarity for a market-specific communication. More recently, he featured in a Uttar Pradesh Police public-awareness film addressing digital arrest scams, again drawing on his intense screen persona to communicate a serious message.

The trajectory is telling. Patekar spent decades building an identity through characters rather than celebrity glamour, and advertising eventually found ways to borrow from those characters.

In an industry where brands increasingly look for celebrities who can deliver instant recognition, Patekar's most valuable asset was arguably something that could not be created by a media plan: a voice, a face and a style that audiences could identify within seconds.

That is why "Baap ko bhej" could become an advertising line, and why "Control... CONTROL!" could bring back Uday Shetty years after Welcome. Patekar did not need to become a brand character. His characters had already become part of the brand vocabulary of popular culture.