Patekar wants media to focus more on farmers' suicide than Pratyusha's

Mumbai, April 18: The 'angry man on screen' is angry in real life again. Veteran actor Nana Patekar, who is known for extensively campaigning for the farmers' rights, feels the media is covering sensational news more than issues that are really concerning.

The 65-year-old actor, who has played several roles in films taking on the establishment, said in an interview to a news channel that the media is highlighting the issue of actor Pratyusha Banerjee day after day but not the suicides of farmers in distress. He said the young actor's death is unfortunate but asked whether the farmers' lives are not worth anything. [Twitterati lauds Patekar]

Patekar started an NGO called NAAM Foundation in 2015 with noted Marathi actor Makrand Anaspure to help farmers who have been affected by the drought situation and widows of farmers who committed suicide. [We have become too tolerant to accept problems: Nana Patekar]

The year 2015 saw 3,228 farmers committing suicide in Maharashtra---the highest in the last 14 years, according to data presented in the Rajya Sabha last month. It means almost nine farmers commit suicide everyday. Vidarbha and Marathwada alone accounted for over 80 per cent of the farmer suicides in the state. [Farmers could become Naxals, says Patekar]

IndiaSpend, a data journalism venture, had reported that the number suicide deaths is almost equal to the number of people killed by the Taliban in 2014 (3,477).

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