Nana Patekar had signed a film with Rajkumar Hirani — just weeks before his death. That’s the revelation that’s now circulating in Mumbai’s creative circles, delivered by Mahesh Manjrekar in interviews following the actor’s passing on October 10, 2026. The project, never officially announced, remains unmade. No title, no script, no production details exist beyond the fact that Patekar had committed to it. Manjrekar said the two would have been ‘magic together’, a phrase he repeated across outlets, underscoring not just admiration but a deep professional bond. He recalled how Patekar always called him after signing a new film. The last time was just days before his death: ‘The last thing he told me was that he was doing a Raju [Rajkumar] Hirani film.’ The weight of that sentence isn’t just poetic. It’s a quiet eulogy for a collaboration that never happened. Not even a trailer, not a still, not a single frame exists. Only the memory of a call. Manjrekar says he saw Patekar’s Instagram post. Him reviewing a book, looking pale, and thought, I’ll call him tomorrow. He went to sleep. At 3 am London time, the call came. He didn’t need to hear the words. The video felt like a goodbye. On set of Natsamrat (2016), there was another moment that defined Patekar: the first day, sound missing on monitor, he screamed at the recordist. The crew froze. The camera shook. Manjrekar knew what would happen next. He’d seen it before. So he asked for new people. Patekar objected. Then, without warning, he walked over, hugged both men, cursed them gently, and the shoot resumed. ‘He was like a child,’ Manjrekar said. That’s the man they’re mourning now, not just the icon, but the man who could terrify you into perfection, then comfort you into calm. And the film with Hirani? Still waiting. No release date. No confirmation. Just silence where a story should be. Patekar was also attached to Maddock Horror Comedy Universe’s Shakti Shalini and in talks for Tiger Shroff’s zombie comedy, but those projects remain unconfirmed. The Hirani film is the only one Manjrekar has named. Its fate is sealed by Patekar’s passing. No further development is expected. The story ends where it began. With a promise, unfulfilled.