Tanushree Dutta is not letting Nana Patekar’s death close the chapter. After the veteran actor died on October 8, she described him as “evil dead” in a social media video and faced immediate criticism from users and the All India Cine Workers Association. In a follow-up video on October 9, she said Patekar never apologised to her and insisted that the public did not know what she had lived through.
A reply that sharpened the row
Dutta said she had been preparing to travel to Lucknow for a work event and wanted to focus on that commitment. But in the second video she hit back at critics, arguing that her reaction came from years of alleged fear. She claimed goons followed her everywhere, that her car’s brakes were cut in 2024, and that her life had been filled with pain since 2018, especially after 2020.
She said people would struggle to endure even four days of what she says she experienced. In her telling, the late actor was “the biggest monster” in her life and did not act alone. “Just because someone has died does not mean all the crimes committed during his life are erased,” she said.
A case that began in 2008
The allegation predates #MeToo. While filming an item song for Horn Ok Pleassss in 2008, Dutta claimed Patekar entered a dance sequence planned as her solo and touched her inappropriately while demonstrating steps. She said she complained to CINTAA in March 2008, but her objections were not adequately addressed.
The dispute became a national flashpoint in October 2018, when she approached Mumbai Police and an FIR was registered against Patekar and others. Patekar denied the allegation. “Jo jhooth hai, woh jhooth hai” (“A lie is a lie”), he told media then, adding that he had answered the claim ten years earlier.
In June 2019, Mumbai Police filed a B-summary closure report citing lack of evidence. A Mumbai court dismissed the sexual harassment charges, finding that there was not enough evidence to support the accusations.
The timeline
- 2008: Dutta complains to CINTAA over the Horn Ok Pleassss item song.
- 2018: An FIR is registered against Patekar; he denies the claim.
- 2019: Police file a B-summary and the court dismisses charges.
- October 2026: Her “evil dead” video and follow-up reopen the public argument.
What else she has alleged
Dutta has also spoken about working with Vivek Agnihotri on the 2005 film Chocolate. In a November 2025 Pinkvilla interview, she clarified that her objection was not to the scene—a revealing costume and an underwater dance—but to the disrespectful manner in which she says Agnihotri explained it.
In July 2025, she returned to headlines with an emotional video alleging harassment at home and saying she had contacted the police. She has long claimed that newcomers in showbiz are exploited, and she has said she rejected a reported ₹1.65 crore Bigg Boss 19 offer over her discomfort with the format. Her last screen credit remains the 2019 web series Inspiration.
Why this matters now
The legal record is closed; the cultural argument is not. Dutta’s second video frames the question as whether mourning should silence a woman who says she was wronged. Her critics frame it as a question of timing and decency. For readers who follow Hindi cinema’s history, this is the #MeToo file reopening in public, with no new court ruling to settle it.
Source: Bhaskar English
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