Tanushree Dutta is not stepping back from the language she used after Nana Patekar died. The veteran actor died in Goa on October 8 at the age of 75 after a cardiac arrest, and Dutta’s public reaction has now become a story of its own.
What sparked the backlash
Soon after the news broke, Dutta posted about Patekar and used the phrase “evil dead.” That drew criticism from people who felt the remark was needlessly harsh at a time when fans were mourning. Dutta has now posted a live video to answer the criticism.
Her counter-argument was direct: if speaking plainly about someone after death is wrong, she asked, then what about the tradition of burning Raavan’s effigy? She used the comparison to argue that public figures are regularly judged after their deaths, and she described Patekar with words that translate to wicked, cunning, manipulative and a liar.
The accusation behind it
Dutta’s history with Patekar goes back to the set of Horn ‘Ok’ Pleassss, a 2009 film. She has alleged that he harassed her during the shoot, and the accusation became one of the early flashpoints of India’s Me Too movement when it resurfaced in 2018.
- An FIR was registered against Patekar in 2018.
- Patekar denied the allegations.
- The case was closed in 2019 for lack of sufficient evidence.
- In 2025, a Mumbai court dismissed the proceedings as filed beyond the legal limitation period.
Dutta says she refused an unscripted intimate step with Patekar and was attacked for it. She also says she approached the police and an artist association, but no action was taken.
Her latest video
In the new video, Dutta went further than defending her earlier words. She said that if Patekar has died, it was because of his own deeds. She added that she has some doubt about whether he has really died, pointing to the ongoing investigation in the Sushant Singh Rajput and Disha Salian case. She argued that if any connection exists, names will eventually come out.
“I will not hesitate to speak the truth because I am not scared,” she said.
Her day had begun with a work trip to Lucknow. In an earlier clip, she said she had heard the news, had an event to focus on, and would react later. She offered condolences to his family before the video cut off.
Why this matters for fans
Dutta also re-shared a post by actor Sandhya Mridul, which asked whether a person stops being an abuser when they die and whether the harm they caused disappears. For survivors, the post argued, it does not.
The exchange is a reminder that Bollywood’s Me Too reckoning did not end neatly in court. Some cases were closed because of insufficient evidence, and others were dismissed on procedural grounds such as the limitation period. For survivors, that can feel like no closure at all.
Whatever viewers think of Dutta’s tone, the Raavan comparison turns the argument toward a bigger question: when a public figure dies, whose memory gets protected and whose experience gets set aside?
Source: Hindustan Times