Nana Patekar, who is known for criticising his fellow actors, has surprised his co-star Murli Sharma by appreciating the latter's work. Murli is playing an important role in Prakash Jha's new film "Apaharan".

Murli's only regret is that he didn't get a chance to share the screen with Nana in the film.

"I don't have any scene with Nana bhai in the film. All my major scenes are with Ajay. Though I will never forget my first interaction with Nana bhai. I was sitting in a corner, reading after giving a shot...and he came up to me and said 'Bahut achcha kar rahe ho tum, Prakash bhi bahut taarif kar rahe the'. And I didn't know how to react. But that was very sweet of him," smiles Murli.

He has put up some brilliant performances in the recent past in films like "Maqbool", "Main Hoon Na", "Karam" and is very excited about Jha's "Apaharan", which is up for release Dec 2.

Incidentally, in "Apaharan", the character is also called Murli who is a middleman who barters kidnapping deals.

"It's a very colourful character and the way Prakash Jha deals with his characters and actors is amazing. All I did was simply followed his script and his instructions," says Murli.