Actress Tanushree Dutta has come under fire from a film industry body over a social media video in which she used the phrase “Evil Dead” while reacting to the death of veteran actor Nana Patekar. Patekar, 75, died on Thursday after a cardiac arrest and was cremated that night with full state honours at his farmhouse near Pune.
In the video, which has circulated widely online, Dutta spoke while travelling to Lucknow for an event. She did not name Patekar directly, but her comments came hours after news of his death emerged. She said she had heard the news but that it was her workday and she wanted to focus on her event. She called it an odd day for this to happen, said she had planned to post live videos and content, and said she was worried that the media would be interested only in “Evil Dead” that evening. She added that she would share her reaction once she worked out what reaction she should have, and offered condolences to the family before trailing off with a “but.”
It is not clear from her words alone whether “Evil Dead” was her own description of Patekar or a reference to how she expected the media to frame the moment. Much of the criticism that followed took it as the former.
The criticism
The All Indian Cine Workers Association (AICWA) issued a statement condemning the remark. Its founder and president, Suresh Shyamlal Gupta, called it deeply objectionable, insensitive and shameful and accused Dutta of seeking cheap publicity. The association said no one in the industry had used such language after a colleague’s passing, expressed the hope that she would be the last to do so, and described the remark as contrary to basic humanity. It also pointed to Patekar’s work with the Naam Foundation, which supports families of distressed farmers, his service during the Kargil War, and his Padma Shri.
While many people backed Dutta, she also faced criticism for being insensitive. The scale of the reaction on either side has not been independently measured.
The history behind the reaction
The response cannot be separated from the 2018 allegations. Dutta accused Patekar of sexual harassment on the set of the 2008 film Horn Ok Pleassss, a claim that helped start Bollywood’s MeToo movement. She had made similar allegations in 2008, and Patekar denied them then. He denied them again in 2018, and his lawyer threatened legal action over what he called false allegations. At the time, Dutta received both support and silence from the industry, with some prominent figures backing her and others staying quiet.
The legal record is limited. The police case was reportedly closed in 2019 for insufficient evidence, and in 2025 a Mumbai magistrate’s court dismissed the criminal proceedings because the complaint was filed beyond the limitation period. The allegations were therefore never tested at trial, and Patekar consistently denied them.
A divided response
The episode shows how differently the same events are read. For Dutta’s critics, a bereaved family and an industry in mourning deserved restraint, whatever the history. For her supporters, a woman who says she was driven out of her career after speaking up has little reason to perform grief on demand, and her uncertainty over how to react is the point. Dutta herself framed the moment as one she was unsure how to handle.
Neither Dutta nor Patekar’s family has publicly responded to the AICWA statement so far. Dutta said she would give a fuller reaction later.
