India, Oct. 9 -- For Nana Patekar, the journey from the screen to the fields of drought-hit Maharashtra was not a publicity exercise or an extension of his celebrity. It became a deeply personal commitment that eventually led him, along with actor Makarand Anaspure, to establish the NAAM Foundation in 2015 to work with farmers and villages struggling with drought, water scarcity and farmer suicides.

Patekar's association with the farmers grew after he began visiting drought-hit areas and meeting families devastated by agrarian distress. He often spoke about how these encounters changed his understanding of life and pushed him towards rural Maharashtra. In 2026, recalling his work at a water conservation conference in Nagpur, he said that...