Nana Patekar says sorry for slapping young fan, social media still sceptical

A day after a viral video showed him smacking an unidentified teenager for attempting to click a selfie with him, veteran actor Nana Patekar has apologised profusely, terming it as a case of "mistaken" identity, saying he thought the act was apparently part of a sequence for his upcoming film Journey, being shot in Varanasi.

Under massive fire for seeming to lose his cool and roughly whacking the youth who sneaked up to him to click a selfie on Wednesday, Patekar said the scene in the viral video was actually a "rehearsal" for a sequence on similar lines.

"We had done one take of a scene in which a person comes from behind and asks, 'Will you sell me your hat', and I whack him saying 'stop such nonsense' and push him off," said Patekar.

Later, the film's director Anil Sharma said there was to be another take of the same scene and as it was being shot, the unidentified teenager suddenly stepped in from behind, as intended in the film sequence.

"I thought he was our boy, so I hit him, saying 'stop such nonsense, get out of here', and the shaken boy ran off...," Patekar explained, sounding embarrassed.

Belatedly realising the goof-up that snowballed into a social media troll army pounding Patekar for hitting an innocent boy on his "chhota dimaag" (mini brain), a famous phrase from Patekar's 1994 film Krantiveer, some of the film unit crew called the boy back and some followed him.

However, apparently bewildered by Patekar's unexpected reaction and the rap on the "chhota dimaag", the scared boy had run off.

A day later, Patekar, 72, apologised at least thrice to the unknown fan, while proclaiming "that I always love my fans and would never think of doing any such act", and praised the people of Varanasi who had showered "so much love and affection" during the ongoing shoot.

In the video, a man who seems part of the film's security team is seen dragging the boy and pushing him away from the spot once the smack is delivered.

As the youngster was being packed off, Patekar was seen turning around and pointing a finger at him, probably as a mild warning to other potential fans to refrain from such acts.

The fracas kicked up primarily negative reactions on social media, with some users supporting the 72-year-old actor, and others siding with the teenager, and one even offering sage advice to Patekar “to show this anger in reel life, not real life”.

The 10-second viral video shows the route leading to Dashashwamedh Ghat, where Patekar is shooting.

The actor was last seen in Vivek Agnihotri's The Vaccine War, and will soon make his OTT debut with Laal Batti, a political thriller directed by Prakash Jha.