Tanushree Dutta reacts to Nana Patekar's death, offers condolences to family

Tanushree Dutta has responded to the death of veteran actor Nana Patekar, the man she accused of harassment in 2018. In a short Instagram story video, she offered condolences to his family but held back any fuller reaction.

Patekar died on Thursday, October 8, after a cardiac arrest at his home in Goa. A doctor said medical staff tried to revive him for about 45 minutes before he was declared dead.

In her video, Dutta said she had heard the news, though she never named Patekar. She was on her way to Lucknow for a big work event and wanted to keep her focus there, calling it "an odd day for all this to happen." She also said she worried that by evening the media would be interested in "evil dead."

"I will give my reaction once I figure out what kind of reaction I should have," she said, adding, "Definitely condolences to the family."

Her allegations go back to the 2008 shoot of Horn 'Ok' Pleassss, where she said Patekar behaved inappropriately with her on set. She raised them publicly again in 2018, and they became one of the defining moments of the #MeToo movement in India. Patekar denied them.

Mumbai Police filed a closure report in 2019, saying there was not enough evidence to support her complaint. Dutta challenged that report and asked for a further probe. In 2025, a Mumbai court declined to take cognisance of the complaint on limitation grounds, noting that the alleged incident dated to 2008 while the FIR was filed only in 2018.