Nana Patekar
When we were in Colombo in 1994 for the Singer Trophy, Azharuddin and Ajay Jadeja used to arrange for me to speak with him,” Latif said while talking to TimesofIndia.com. Latif also recalled congratulating Patekar when he won the Best Actor award in 1998. “I used to speak with him regularly, and it continued for many days. He was in South Africa with the Pakistan team at the time and later heard from former India cricketer Ajay Jadeja how Patekar had shared the message with the Indian players.
“When he received the Best Actor award in 1998, I was in South Africa with the team, and I had conveyed my congratulations to him. We first talked back in 1994, and it all started from there,” Basit said. During the Kargil War in 1999, he convinced Defence Minister George Fernandes to let him work with soldiers on the frontline. He spent about 60 days at different locations, including Drass, Mughal Pora and Baramulla, and was also a member of the Quick Reaction Team (QRT).
Because of Nana Patekar, we had nicknamed Latif as ‘Nana’,.
Then when he went and met the Indian team, he told everyone about it, that is what Ajay Jadeja was telling me. He said, “Look, Rashid Latif is Pakistani, he congratulated me, but you people did not,” so yes, I continued speaking with him,” Rashid added. “Early in the morning I heard sad news. Our very dear brother, friend, and living legend is no longer in this world—Nana Patekar Sahab has passed away. What a person he was; he acted in movies exactly as he was in real life. Indian armed forces .