When Nana Patekar died on 8 October, Hindi cinema began sorting through a familiar set of tributes. Tanushree Dutta interrupted that rhythm. In an Instagram video posted while she travelled to Lucknow for a work event, she offered condolences to his family, then said the phrase that has since driven the news cycle: ‘Mere liye toh evil dead hi hai’ — for her, he is, simply, ‘evil dead’. Later, as criticism built, she refused to soften it.
The immediate response
Dutta’s problem on the day was not grief alone. She said she wanted to focus on a professional commitment in Lucknow but suspected the media would instead chase a reaction to Patekar’s death. ‘I have heard the news. Today is my work day,’ she said. Her unease proved accurate: the reaction, not the event, became the story.
AICWA called the remark ‘cheap publicity’. Social media divided along familiar lines: some saw cruelty toward a dead man, others saw consistency from a woman whose account was never legally resolved.
The original dispute
The bad blood dates back to a dance sequence in the 2008 comedy Horn ‘Ok’ Pleassss. Dutta has alleged that Patekar pushed to be part of intimate choreography meant for her and another actor, behaved inappropriately and made her uncomfortable. She said she objected at the time. Patekar rejected the accusation.
In September 2018, Dutta recounted the story publicly. It became one of the early, prominent cases of India’s #MeToo movement. CINTAA expressed concern; the matter drew in political workers as well. Mumbai Police registered a case, then filed a closure report in 2019 citing insufficient evidence. The legal file closed; the public argument did not.
Why it still matters
The death of a veteran actor usually gives the industry permission to settle on a single, generous story. This case resists that. There is no court finding that reconciled Dutta’s account and Patekar’s denial. So the old question — what happened on that set — has simply attached itself to a new moment.
For readers who follow Hindi cinema closely, the relevant frame is not politeness. It is memory. An industry that styles itself as a family often asks that difficult chapters be retired quietly. But the #MeToo movement in India gained momentum because private stories became public. Erasing them after a death would be its own kind of closure, and not one everyone accepts.
- Dutta won Femina Miss India Universe in 2004 and debuted in Aashiq Banaya Aapne in 2005.
- Her Horn ‘Ok’ Pleassss allegation surfaced publicly in September 2018.
- Patekar denied the allegation; Mumbai Police filed a closure report in 2019.
The week leaves the industry with an uncomfortable dual task: honour a career and remember an unresolved allegation. How Bollywood handles that split-screen will say more than any single hashtag.
Source: News18
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