Nana Patekar apologises for viral video: It was a misunderstanding during rehearsal for a scene

Veteran actor Nana Patekar issued an apology on Wednesday night after a video of him hitting a fan on the head, when he went to click a selfie with the actor, went viral on social media. In an apology video, which Nana posted on his Instagram account, he stated that he mistook the fan for an actor in the film they were shooting.

The video in contention shows a fan sneaking up to Nana to click a selfie with him but the actor, after slapping him, gets him dragged away by the scruff of his neck.

“The video which is circulating on social media has been misinterpreted by many. What actually happened was a misunderstanding during the rehearsal of a shot from my upcoming film 'Journey’,” Nana captioned the post. In the video he states that the scene was a rehearsal for a sequence from the film “in which a man asks me, ‘Aey budhau topi bechni hai kya? (Old man, are you selling the hat?) because I am wearing a hat. So, he comes, I hit him and tell him to not misbehave and then he runs.”

“We had done one rehearsal, we had to do one more. We were about to begin when the boy in the video sneaked in. I didn’t know who he was, I thought he was our guy. So, I hit him as per the scene and told him that he should not misbehave but then I realised he was not our guy. By the time I started calling him back, he ran away,” added Nana.

The actor is seen apologising with folded hands in the video. “I have never refused anyone for a picture. The ghat is always so crowded, and this scene was being shot in the market. This happened by mistake, I didn’t know where he came from.”

Earlier, director Anil Sharma, whose film Journey Nana was shooting for when the incident occurred, stated that the video was taken out of context. 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.