Court actor Vira Sathidar dies of coronavirus complications

Nagpur: Actor-activist Vira Sathidar, best known for featuring in the National Award-winning film "Court", died on Tuesday due to COVID-19 related complications.

Vira Sathidar, 62, was undergoing treatment at AIIMS Nagpur after he contracted the coronavirus.

A hospital official said that the actor was admitted to the medical facility last week and passed away at 3.42 AM on Tuesday due to sudden cardiorespiratory arrest in COVID-19 pneumonia with respiratory failure.

Filmmaker Chaitanya Tamhane, who directed Sathidar in the acclaimed 2014 movie "Court", said the actor was on put on life support post his hospitalisation.

"He had COVID-19 and was put on ventilator. It's an extremely unfortunate news. It is yet to sink in," Tamhane told PTI.

Sathidar rose to prominence after playing the role of protest singer Narayan Kamble in "Court", who is accused of encouraging a manhole worker to commit suicide through one of his folk songs.

Tamhane said the news of Sathidar's demise has come as a "huge shock" to him.

"He was not only an actor, activist and a poet but also one of the nicest human beings I've met. I still can't process it. He was a fantastic person and I can now only think of the time we spent making 'Court,'" the director added.

Apart from "Court", which was India's official entry to Oscars in 2016, Sathidar went on to feature in two more short films.