As film lovers across India mourned the death of veteran actor Nana Patekar on Thursday, a village in central Maharashtra remembered how he helped make it ‘tanker-free’ by funding a water conservation project ten years ago.

Patekar, 76, passed away at his Goa residence in the early hours of Thursday. NAAM Foundation, set up by Patekar and fellow Marathi actor Makarand Anaspure, adopted Dhondalgaon, a village in Vaijapur tehsil, in 2016. Every year, the village, 57 km from Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar city, would need water supplied through tankers as the monsoon ended and Diwali approached, said river expert Anand Asolkar.

During the Nizam era, the village was famous for its sweet limes, which were transported to other parts of the country from nearby Karanjgaon railway station. But with local river barrages choked with silt, farmers could no longer cultivate sweet lime trees or grow more than one crop a year.

“After establishing the NAAM Foundation, Makarand Anaspure and Nana Patekar were in search of a village where a water conservation project could be undertaken... I told them about Dhondalgaon... They came here on October 2, 2015, and inaugurated the work,” Asolkar told PTI.

“There were 12 barrages and they were completely filled with silt, so no water stopped there. The villagers also contributed to the work and we desilted a stretch of 4.5 km. It created storage capacity of nearly 20 crore litres of water,” he said.

The project changed the village’s economy, said Asolkar. “Almost 70 per cent of farmers here now grow two crops in a year; some even grow three crops. The village has been tanker-free from 2016 to this day, except for a few months in 2018 when there was a severe drought,”  he said.

An activist said that the availability of water also provided a boost to dairy farming. The village now produces up to 10,000 litres of milk every day, among the highest in the district. The milk business provides employment to nearly 800 local youths.

“Nana adopted our village, and the way people looked at our village changed. Politicians began to give priority to the development of our village. I take pride in saying that not a single farmer suicide has taken place here since this work was completed,” Sable said.

The village sarpanch said local people had acquired a negative mindset due to repeated droughts. But the water conservation project led by NAAM Foundation changed everything.

Nana was known to be quite a foodie. His love for cricket is also well-known. In previous interviews, he has fondly spoken about Virat Kohli being among his favourite cricketers. “I like Virat Kohli so much that whenever he gets out early while playing for India, I don’t feel like eating my food after that,” Patekar once famously said.

Incidentally, on Thursday, when the news of Patekar’s sudden passing spread, the swashbuckling India batter was among the first to offer his tribute to the great actor. “A true legend of Indian cinema. His work and legacy will live on for generations. Rest in peace, Nana Patekar ji. Om Shanti,” Kohli wrote to his 73.5 million followers on ‘X’.

The reply from some of Kohli’s followers was equally touching. “He was a mad, mad fan of you, Virat Kohli, just like us. We are truly gonna miss him,” wrote one follower to Kohli. “It’s great to see a true legend of cricket giving a tribute to a true legend of cinema,” wrote another.