Director Anil Sharma issues clarification after video of Nana Patekar hitting a boy goes viral

Veteran actor Nana Patekar was reportedly seen losing his cool while making a public appearance in a marketplace in Varanasi, where he was shooting for his next film, as seen in a viral video that emerged on Wednesday.

In the video, Patekar can be seen clad in a brown check suit with a fawn-coloured hat and a scarf, smiling and waving to his fans when a boy came in from behind the actor to take a selfie. Looking at him, Nana smacked him at the back after which a crew member standing next to him grabbed the boy by the neck and made him leave the set.

The incident caught on camera, had gone viral on social media, with several users slamming his act of slapping the boy. 

Director Anil Sharma, noting that the video was taken out of context, said that it is a shot from his film. Speaking to Aaj Tak, he said, "I have just come to know about this news. I was watching the same video just now. Nana has not hit anyone, rather that is a shot from my film. We were filming it on the road in the middle of Banaras, where a boy who comes near Nana has to be hit on the head. Shooting was going on and Nana also hit him."

The director also clarified that the video was shot by people who had gathered to watch the shooting. "Nana is being projected as a negative and rude actor on social media, which is completely wrong," he added.

Patekar is currently in the city to shoot for filmmaker Anil Sharma’s next venture, Journey. It also stars Gadar 2 actor Utkarsh Sharma. He was last seen in Vivek Agnihotri's The Vaccine War in which he played the role of the former director general of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). He will soon be making his OTT debut with Laal Batti, a political thriller directed by Prakash Jha.