Actress Madhoo Shah has recalled an incident on the sets of the 1997 film Yeshwant, saying co-actor Nana Patekar slapped her during a take, prompting her to instinctively hit him back.
Speaking about the experience in an interview with Hindi Rush, Madhoo said, “With Nana Patekar, I became a method actor. There was a scene where I was supposed to use glycerin. He didn't let me use it. He was like, ‘Feel it, you should have natural tears.' But I couldn't do it. What he did then was slap me for real. He slapped me so hard that I naturally had tears in my eyes.”
She added that the moment was not rehearsed and left her shocked and angry.
“I was extremely mad at him because we had done rehearsals and he hadn't done anything like that. His sudden slap shocked me. And I am so short-tempered that I slapped him back. He hit me and my reflex was to hit him back,” she added.
Madhoo said the sequence, though unexpected, ultimately helped the shoot of a key scene in the film. Directed by Anil Mattoo, Yeshwant had allocated an entire day for the sequence, but it was completed much earlier than planned.
She said, “It was the most crucial scene of Yeshwant, and director Anil Mattoo had dedicated an entire day to shoot it. Because everything happened so naturally, we wrapped it up in half a day. Nana was like, ‘After this scene, what more shots do you want? Finish. Scene over’. I became a method actor with him."
Madhoo also said Patekar was not disrespectful beyond creative differences and was focused on performance realism.
“He only showed displeasure when he wanted me to improve my performance. He would get upset when I used glycerin or stepped out of the character's mood after a shot. I am a switch-on, switch-off actor, but Nanaji was against it. He believed in living the character you are playing,” she mentioned.
Yeshwant, directed by Anil Mattoo, features Nana Patekar in the title role, alongside Madhoo Shah and Atul Agnihotri. The film follows an undercover narcotics officer who leads a modest life while supporting his wife, Ragini, in her ambition to become a deputy collector, while facing threats from drug lord Salim Shaikh.