Amol Palekar almost rejected Nana Patekar for 'Thodasa Roomani Ho Jayen' over on-set fight with Vidhu Vinod Chopra: 'I told Nana, 'You don't have softness''

Nana Patekar’s well-known emotional nature almost prevented him from being cast in Amol Palekar’s 1990 film 'Thodasa Roomani Ho Jayen'. Palekar once shared that he was initially reluctant to offer Nana a role because he had heard about a confrontation between Nana and director Vidhu Vinod Chopra during the filming of their 1989 movie 'Parinda'. Despite Nana’s eagerness to be part of the project, Palekar’s concerns about the actor’s temperament made him hesitant at first.

Role Required a Soft and Poetic Character

When questioned about whether Nana was turned down due to his fiery temperament, Amol clarified to The Lallantop, “I didn’t reject him because of his short temper. That character was far away from being a short temper guy, in fact, that character had a poetic heart, he was very soft. I told Nana, ‘You don’t have softness in your whole personality and you won’t be able to do it.'”

Nana’s Determination to Land the Role

Nana didn’t let Amol’s critique discourage him and remained determined to land the role. Amol recalled, “He kept pursuing me. This was the time when Parinda was a hit and his gritty character in the film was a hit, he was seen as the angry young man. At that time, people were also talking about how Nana beat up Vidhu Vinod Chopra during Parinda shoot. There was physical fight between them.”

Transformation Through Rehearsals

Amol added, “So, it is obvious that he didn’t come close to my character. But he took it as a challenge and came to me for 10 days and did rehearsals with me. He told me, ‘I will come to you naked, you shape me how you want.’ During those 10 days of rehearsals he changed completely, his personality changed completely. And during the whole shoot we didn’t even have an argument, forget about getting into a fight.”

Vidhu Vinod Chopra Recalls the On-Set Clash

Vidhu once revealed on a singing reality show the intense clash he had with Nana during the filming of 'Parinda'. He described how a simple disagreement quickly turned physical. He recounted, “There’s a scene in the film where Nana asks if he has tears in his eyes after his wife has died… We’d been shooting all day, and it was late in the evening. Nana declared that he was too tired to continue and that he was going home. I told him, ‘Sure, you pay for the overheads then’. He started swearing at me, I swore back, and in the scuffle, I tore his kurta. The cops on set said, ‘We’re here to protect you, and you’re fighting among yourselves.’”