Indian movie actor Nana Patekar is one of the most talented actors in Indian film industry. He was born on the first day of the year in 1951. He is a versatile actor who is also a prominent theatre personality. His birth name was Vishwanath Patekar but he is popularly known as Nana Patekar. The actor was born in Murud-Janjira, Maharashtra. His father was Dankar Patekar and mother was Sangana Patekar. He did his graduation from J. J. Institute of Applied Arts. He was very keen to drama and stage performance from his childhood. After his graduation he was very much into theatre. Nana gets involved in silver screen with the request of prominent star Smita Patil. From his very first film, Nana Patekar believes in doing different roles and so far has come out with a wide variety of roles. None have been similar to the other. He is a versatile actor with lots of variety in roles. Nana Patekar is said to have a unique acting style.

It is widely rumored that he improvises all of his lines, and is for sure held in high regard for this creative ability. Sometimes he even creates some lines and delivers it in front of the camera. Nana has done some Marathi films also. Nana Patekar is also well known for his sketches. But this quality of his is not known to outside world. His sketches sometime even help Mumbai Police to track criminals. Nana Patekar`s first film `Aaj Ki Awaz` was not a big hit and it could not do much for him. Some other unnoticed films were `Mohra` in 1987 and `Salaam Bombay` in 1988.

But N. Chandra tapped this budding talent in `Ankush`, which slung him to fame. There started a success formula that is still going strong. Some of Nana Patekar`s other films are Amol Palekar`s `Thoda Sa Romani Ho Jaaye`, Vidhu Vinod Chopra`s `Parinda`, Mehul Kumar`s `Krantiveer`, Aziz Mirza`s `Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman`, Sanjay Bhansali`s `Khamoshi`, Partho Ghosh`s `Agnisakhi` and N. Chandra`s `Wajood`. All these films has seen different Nana altogether. Nana played brilliantly with his schizophrenic character in `Wajood`. In that film he played the role of a theatre personality where he showed that a theater person can do any role with perfection and he is not an exception.

He is very humble by nature. He has also attempted making a film `Prahaar` with Madhuri Dixit and Dimple Kapadia. The film was critically acclaimed and it also helped in taking Nana`s career to its height. Nana Patekar has also tried comedy where he became very successful. His `Taxi No 9.2.11` and recent `Welcome` are example of this category. The actor is also well known for his role in the movie `Ab Tak Chappan` in which he played a police officer. He played the negative role in `Apharan`, which was acclaimed by all. The actor is always exploring his inner talents and Nana has also impressed his fans with playback singing in the films `Yeshwant`, `Wajood` and `Aanch`. The actor is known to for his generously to the poor and established himself as one of the most admired actors in the Bollywood fraternity as well.

Nana Patekar won the filmfare and National film award as Best Actor`s award in supporting role for his film `Parinda` in 1990 and filmfare best actor and also National film award in `Krantiveer` in the year 1995. `Krantiveer` also bagged him Star screen award as best actor. He also won the Filmfare Best Villain Award in 1992 for `Angaar`. In 1997 he again won the National film award as best actor in supporting role for his film `Agnisakshi`. For his `Ab Tak Chappan` he got BFJA best actor award. Another film is `Apaharan` for which he received the Filmfare as well as the Star Screen award as the Best Villain. He has also won AIFA award for best villain in 2006 for his `Apharan`.