‘Nana Patekar suffered during Tanushree Dutta controversy’:Mahesh Manjrekar says, ‘The issue was blown out of proportion; nothing happened on set’

Actor and filmmaker Mahesh Manjrekar recently remembered his late friend and veteran actor Nana Patekar. In an interview with News18 Marathi, Manjrekar expressed regret at not being able to meet Nana Patekar for the last time before his death in Goa on 8 October 2026. During the interview, he also spoke about the 2018 Tanushree Dutta controversy. Manjrekar claimed that nothing wrong had happened on the sets of the film ‘Horn OK Pleass’ and that the old matter had been blown out of proportion without any reason. ‘I knew everyone on the set; nothing happened there’ Mahesh Manjrekar said in an interview that he personally knew everyone who was present on the sets of the 2008 film ‘Horn OK Pleasss’. He said, “Some people are such that if everyone supports them but one person does not, they do not like it. They bring up old issues again. I know what happened on the sets that day. Everyone present there was known to me, and they all told me that nothing had happened on the sets. The matter was needlessly blown out of proportion.” ‘Nana suffered a great deal through no fault of his own’ Recalling the impact the controversy had on Nana Patekar, Manjrekar expressed his sadness. He said Nana had suffered a great deal in the entire matter for no reason. According to Manjrekar, such things should be ignored, but in the age of social media, everyone forms their own opinion and there is no remedy for it. It may be recalled that after Nana Patekar’s death, actress Tanushree Dutta shared a video on social media and spoke about the controversy again, bringing the issue back into the spotlight. What was the controversy about? The dispute between Tanushree Dutta and Nana Patekar began in 2008 during the shooting of the film ‘Horn OK Pleassss’. In March 2008, a song from the film was being shot at Filmistan Studio in Mumbai. Tanushree alleged that during the song’s shoot, Nana Patekar tried to move close to her and touch her inappropriately under the pretext of teaching her dance steps. She also alleged that intimate steps were added to the song’s choreography, making her uncomfortable. Tanushree left the shoot midway in protest. According to her, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) workers then attacked her car outside the studio. She also filed complaints with the police and the Cine and TV Artistes Association (CINTAA). In September 2018, Tanushree mentioned the incident again in a television interview. The matter then became a topic of discussion at the national level. Tanushree filed a complaint with the Mumbai Police against Nana Patekar, choreographer Ganesh Acharya, director Rakesh Sarang and producer Sami Siddiqui. In 2019, the Mumbai Police filed a B-summary closure report in court, stating that there was insufficient evidence. In 2025, Mumbai’s Andheri magistrate’s court also dismissed the criminal proceedings against Nana Patekar on the grounds of insufficient evidence and the delay in filing the complaint. Nana Patekar had spoken about the allegations In an interview with Lallantop in 2024, Nana Patekar was asked whether he had been angry after Tanushree made serious allegations against him. Nana replied, “If it is a lie, what is there to be angry about? What can one say now about what has already happened? I was not angry.” Asked about the FIR, Nana had said, “That is fine; whatever else happens, I have no problem with it. But if, in front of everyone, a child says, ‘This person misbehaved with us,’ now everyone knows what happened, right? We know nothing; nothing happened at all. So what would we have known? If it had happened, we would have made a statement and told people about it. If someone says, ‘You did this,’ what can we say? We did not do it. What else can we say?” Nana Patekar died of a heart attack at a hospital in Goa on 8 October at the age of 75. Doctors performed CPR on him for around 45 minutes in an attempt to save him, but he could not be saved.