Tirangaa director Mehul Kumar recalled how reluctant the temperamental Raaj Kumar and Nana Patekar were about working with each other. Rajinikanth had earlier said no to the film as he didn’t want to work with Raaj Kumar.

Nana Patekar and Raaj Kumar were both unsure about working with each other. (Photo: Express Archive)

Director Mehul Kumar, who helmed the 1993 patriotic action film Tirangaa, recalled how cautious actors Raaj Kumar and Nana Patekar were about working with each other. Both actors were famously temperamental, while one was a veteran and the other relatively new to mainstream films. In an interview, Mehul Kumar said that they both declared in advance that they wouldn’t tolerate any tantrums by the other.

Appearing on the Friday Talkies YouTube channel, the filmmaker said that while he had locked Raaj Kumar for the film’s central role, he couldn’t find the second lead. He approached Rajinikanth, who said that while he liked the story of the film, he wouldn’t want to work with someone as unpredictable as Raaj Kumar. Then, the director went to Naseeruddin Shah, who turned him down as well. Someone then suggested Nana Patekar, who had starred in the acclaimed film Parinda by then, but fancied himself an arthouse actor.

Mehul Kumar said, “I called him up, but he said, ‘I don’t do commercial films’. I told him, ‘Listen, unless you do commercial films, nobody is going to know who you are’. At that time, arthouse movies wouldn’t even be released outside of Mumbai. I told him to listen to the story before making a decision, and he called me over the next day. He liked the song, but he had a condition. He said, ‘If Raaj saab interferes, I’ll walk off the set, and I won’t return’. I told him he needn’t worry, since I’d worked with Raaj saab twice before already.”

The director continued, “When I told Raaj saab that I’d locked Nana for the second lead, he said, ‘Woh toh badtameez kisam ka insaan hai, gali-galoch karta hai set pe, maar-peet bhi kar leta hai (He’s a rowdy; he screams and shouts on set. He gets physical also)’.” Mehul Kumar said that the shoot was completed without a hitch, but admitted that the two actors weren’t friendly with each other.

Recently, Nana Patekar admitted in an interview that his temper has often got the better of him. He recalled a physical altercation he had on the sets of Parinda, with director Vidhu Vinod Chopra, who had once revealed that they came to blows at one point. Actor Prashant Narayanan, on the other hand, recalled a story about the animosity between Raaj Kumar and Dilip Kumar on the sets of Saudagar.