Court (2015) actor Vira Sathidar died this morning in Nagpur, Maharashtra, of COVID-19 complications. Sathidar had been admitted to a hospital in the city recently after testing positive for the novel coronavirus and was on a ventilator for the past two days.
Reacting on the news, Chaitanya Tamhane, writer-director of Court, told The Indian Express newspaper, “Right now I am shocked and speechless. He was one of the nicest people I have met and we were blessed to have him as the face of Court. I am still processing the news. It is just extremely sad.”
Music composer, singer and lyricist Sambhaji Bhagat, who was a close friend of Sathidar and also worked on Court, told the publication, “Vira was admitted to a hospital in Nagpur a few days ago and was on a ventilator for the last two days. His death has pained me a lot. We will not only miss him as a talented actor, but also a beautiful human being.”
Sathidar came to be cast in the lead role in Court by chance as Tamhane was looking for a real person to play the role of a folk singer in the film. His performance was hailed and the Marathi film went on to be India’s official entry for the Oscars in the foreign language category.
Over the years, Sathidar has been a Dalit and human rights activist, poet, singer, writer and editor of the Marathi magazine Vidrohi, meaning rebel.