Nana Patekar says he wanted to apologise to boy he slapped, but he ran away out of fear: ‘This happened by mistake’

A day after a video showed Nana Patekar slapping a fan for clicking a selfie with him on set, the actor has shared his side of the story in a new video posted by ANI.

He has said that smacking a boy was part of a scene in his next film and he thought the fan was actually one of the crew members, who was supposed to be a part of the scene, but he later learned that he was a real fan.

Nana Patekar explains the scene
Talking in Hindi, Nana says in the video, “Namaskar. A video is going viral where I hit a boy. There is a sequence in the film where a boy comes from behind and says ‘Ae budhau, topi bechni hai (hey old man, do you want to sell your hat)?’ and I catch him, smack him and ask him to behave properly and he runs away.”

Nana Patekar on what exactly happened
Explaining further, he says, “Though this sequence is a part of our film, we had one rehearsal. We were scheduled to have a second rehearsal. The director told me to begin. We were about to begin when the boy in the video came in. I didn’t know who he was, I thought he was one of our crew so I slapped him as per the scene and I told him to leave. Later, I came to know that he was not a part of the crew. So, I was going to call him back but he ran away. Maybe his friend shot the video. I have never said no to anybody for a photo. I don’t do this…This happened by mistake… If there is some misunderstanding, please forgive me… I will never do anything like this…”

The video also shows him expressing his wish to apologise to the boy but he adds that he ran away out of fear and they couldn’t track him.

Journey director on the viral video
Hours after the video of Nana hitting a boy went viral, director Anil Sharma had told PTI, “He (Patekar) has not slapped anyone, it is a shot from our film. People have a problem of making fuss out of nothing… We are currently filming in Benaras for the film, Journey. Patekar’s character has dementia in the film. His mind is disturbed and a guy comes to click picture with him. There are so many people around us, who are here to watch the shoot. I think someone clicked this particular portion, which is actually one of the scenes from the film.”

Nana will be shooting for Journey in Varanasi for two more weeks. The film also stars Utkarsh Sharma of Gadar 2 fame.