The sudden demise of veteran actor and thespian Nana Patekar has shed light on his final commitments to the world of cinema, particularly his unfinished final film, The Confession of Mary.
As tributes pour in from across India for the 75-year-old, who died on Thursday after suffering a cardiac arrest at his Goa home.
One such tribute was from the co-producer of that crime thriller, Subhash Kale, who was shocked, and called his death a "very big loss".
"We had spoken just the day before yesterday about the dubbing. There was one line that he had to dub," Kale told ANI.
He added that Patekar's last words to him were about meeting in Mumbai to record that line for dubbing, which now remains incomplete.
"We would sit together, have a lot of fun, joke around, sing songs ... He was just incredible. What can I say now?" he added.
Indeed, this unfinished film, directed by National Award-winner Ananth Mahadevan, is touted as one of the actor's most interesting films, in which he will play Father Benedict, a priest accused of murdering a woman, based on the 1966 Mariyakutty murder case in Kerala.
Selected to premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) 2025, the project is awaiting release.
"Only a few minor dialogue changes were pending. But at this moment, that is honestly the least of our concerns. We will find a way to address whatever little remains. Right now, it is very difficult to even think about the film from a technical or commercial perspective," Shreyans Hirawat, another of the film's producers, told Indian Express.
He added that he "will always regret" putting off meeting Patekar for later, as the actor had sounded "absolutely hearty and healthy" over the phone.
Patekar also has roles in two finished films—Laxman Utekar's Eetha and Maddock Films's Shakti Shalini—that will release posthumously.
Eetha is a biographical film based on the life of Vithabai Narayangaonkar, the celebrated Maharashtrian Lavani and Tamasha artist, and is headlined by Shraddha Kapoor and Randeep Hooda. It is scheduled for a December 4, 2026 release.
Shakti Shalini, on the other hand, will be a horror-comedy from Maddock Films's horror-comedy universe, which includes movies like Stree, Bhediya, and Munjhya. Directed by Aditya Sarpotdar, the film also stars Aneet Padda, Vishal Jethwa, and Vineet Kumar Singh, and will release in 2027.
