Nana Patekar, who died on October 8 at 75, leaves behind a body of work that reshaped the Hindi film hero. Across five decades, he won three National Film Awards and gave the mainstream an anti-hero whose silence could turn violent without warning. But the same intensity that made Parinda, Krantiveer and Ab Tak Chhappan feel dangerous also kept his public life in recurring controversy.
The roles that made him
Patekar’s craft was not built on charm. In Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s Parinda, his Anna was a gangster who could sit still and make the frame feel unsafe. The performance earned him the National Film Award for Best Supporting Actor, and it made him a different kind of leading man: one who did not need to be liked. His later work carried the same volatility, from the street-corner anger of Krantiveer to the exhausted cop of Ab Tak Chhappan.
The #MeToo allegation that reoriented his legacy
In 2008, Tanushree Dutta alleged that Patekar harassed her during a song shoot for Horn Ok Please. She said he pushed for intimate steps that were not scripted and mishandled her when she resisted; she left the project. The claims became a national flashpoint a decade later, when Dutta repeated them in interviews and helped ignite India’s #MeToo reckoning across the film industry.
Patekar denied the allegations and called them baseless. Mumbai Police filed a B-Summary closure report in June 2019, recommending the case be closed for insufficient evidence. Dutta challenged that report, but in early 2025 an Andheri Magistrate Court declined to proceed, citing the bar of limitation. No conviction followed. Even so, the case changed the conversation about on-set safety and accountability in Hindi cinema.
A pattern of clashes
Patekar was open about his temper. In a 2024 interview with The Lallantop, he said,
“I have no control over my anger. I am still the same.”
That admission ran through many of his professional relationships.
- Vidhu Vinod Chopra: The Parinda director said he began swearing only because he had to direct Patekar; Chopra recalled an on-set scuffle in which he tore Patekar’s kurta.
- Sanjay Leela Bhansali: Patekar said he yelled at the Khamoshi director, and the two never worked together again.
- Shiv Sena: He publicly stood up for writer P.L. Deshpande when Bal Thackeray attacked literary figures, drawing an editorial rebuke from Saamana.
- A fan video: In November 2023, a clip showed him slapping a young fan on set in Varanasi. Patekar later said he mistook the fan for a crew member while rehearsing a shot.
What his legacy leaves behind
For readers who care about Hindi cinema’s history, Patekar’s passing is not a simple farewell. It reopens a difficult question: can an actor’s contribution to the form be separated from the harm he is accused of? The #MeToo allegation was never proven in court, but it remains the frame through which many now remember him. His anger made his performances unforgettable, and it also made him hard to work with. Both are part of the record.
Source: Outlook India
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