Nana Patekar & Makarand Anaspure

Nana Patekar and Makarand Anaspure are Marathi and Hindi film actors who founded the NAAM Foundation together in September 2015, in response to the wave of farmer suicides in drought-hit Maharashtra. Patekar, a National Film Award winner known for a spare personal style, had already been giving away award money and film fees; Anaspure, an actor and director from Aurangabad whose work is closely identified with the Marathwada dialect, entered films through Patekar's help and became his partner in the relief effort.

The immediate work was cash relief to bereaved families. In August 2015 Patekar distributed cheques of 15,000 rupees each to 62 farming families in Vidarbha, and in September that year to a further 113 families in Latur and Osmanabad districts of Marathwada. He had earlier given the entire one-million-rupee purse of the Raj Kapoor award to drought relief in Maharashtra, donated his fee for the film Paathshaala to five charities, and contributed to rebuilding flood-damaged villages in Bihar through the organisation Anubhuthi. A Twitter appeal under the hashtag #IcareIsupport raised further funds for drought victims.

NAAM Foundation has since moved from relief payments to the underlying water problem, working across Marathwada and Vidarbha on deepening streams and nalas, farm ponds, percolation tanks, desilting of dams, canal and pipeline construction and borewell rejuvenation, alongside river rejuvenation projects. It also runs support for suicide-affected families and widows, school building and school kit distribution, health check-up camps, mass marriages, tree planting and disaster relief.[1][2][3]