News of Eric Dane’s death Thursday was met with an outpouring of grief by celebrities, who expressed their admiration for the TV star’s mischievous on-screen charisma and his advocacy efforts during his battle against ALS.

Dane is best known for his role as Dr. Mark Sloan, or “McSteamy,” on “Grey’s Anatomy” and recently portrayed the dark and secretive father Cal Jacobs in HBO’s “Euphoria.” He died at age 53, less than a year after publicly announcing his diagnosis with the neurodegenerative disease.

Alyssa Milano, who was Dane’s romantic co-star on “Charmed,” shared a heartfelt message on Instagram praising his cheeky, yet tender spirit and deep love for his daughters.

“I can’t stop seeing that spark in Eric’s eye right before he’d say something that would either make you spit out your drink or rethink your entire perspective,” said Milano. “He had a razor-sharp sense of humor. He loved the absurdity of things.”

HBO Max shared a statement on Instagram, lauding Dane’s talent and saying the network was “fortunate to have worked with him on three seasons of Euphoria.” The show’s creator, Sam Levinson, shared a statement with Variety saying he’s heartbroken by the loss of a dear friend.

“Working with him was an honor,” Levinson said. “Being his friend was a gift. Eric’s family is in our prayers. May his memory be for a blessing.”

Former “Grey’s Anatomy” showrunner Krista Vernoff shared an Instagram post fondly reminiscing about when Dane returned to the set in 2021 to film a dream sequence featuring his character, who died in Season 9. Although it was shot during the pandemic, he “broke the rules” and gave her a huge hug.

“The thing I will remember most about Eric Dane are his hugs,” Vernoff wrote. “The best hugs. Oh my friend. I wish you peace.”

Dane was preparing to publish his memoir, “Book of Days: A Memoir in Moments,” later this year with Maria Shriver’s publishing imprint, the Open Field.

Shriver said Dane was heroic in the way he handled his disease and used his platform to raise awareness about ALS.

“He told me he wanted his family to know how much he loved them, and he wanted to leave them a story they could be proud of,” she said in a statement on X. “My love goes out to his family, and to all those battling this cruel disease, as well as all those caring for someone battling it.”

In 2025, Dane drew on his personal experiences with the condition to portray a firefighter living with ALS on “Brilliant Minds” and advocated for legislation to provide funding for ALS research and give patients early access to treatments.

He worked closely with the nonprofit organization I Am ALS to raise money to research new treatments for the disease, which currently has no cure.

“Eric brought humility, humor, and visibility to ALS and reminded the world that progress is possible when we refuse to remain silent,” the organization said in a statement. “Eric was more than a supporter of our mission — he was part of our family.”

ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, is a progressive disease that damages nerve cells controlling voluntary muscles, typically causing death two to five years after diagnosis.

Nina Dobrev, Dane’s co-star in the western romance movie “Redeeming Love,” wrote on her Instagram story that she was heartbroken by his death.

“He was warm, generous, prepared, and so passionate about what he did,” she said. “He led with kindness and made everyone on our set feel seen.”

Times staff writer Alexandra Del Rosario contributed to this report

From April 2024 to the middle of 2025, at least six films were released with Suhas in the lead role but none of them gave him the expected positive result. He took a pause for about six months in releasing his films in theatres and came up with a comedy-drama film ‘Hey Balwanth’. The inform producers and the presenters, Vamsi Nandipati and Bunny Vasu, took the responsibility of releasing the film and generated enough curiosity among the audience with some interesting promotions. After getting its title changed from ‘Hey Bhagawan’ to ‘Hey Balwanth’, due to the censor board objections, the film was released in theatres today. Did Suhas, score a theatrical hit after tasting not-so-favourable results with his last few films in lead roles? Did the actress, Shivani Nagaram, continue her success streak? Did Vamsi Nandipati and Bunny Vasu, deliver yet another successful film? How did the director, Gopi Atchara, do? Did Vivek Sagar’s music help the film? Let’s figure it out with a detailed analysis.

What is it about?

Krishna(Suhas), grew up watching his father(Naresh) working day in and day out. He wants to take up his father’s business after he finishes his post-graduation in business management. But, Krishna’s father asks him to find a good job elsewhere. To prove his worth as a worthy successor to his father, he joins as a business consultant at an NGO which is being managed by Mithra(Shivani Nagaram) and eventually falls in love with her. When everything seems to be going well, Krishna’s father suffers a heart attack and the doctors ask him to take bed rest for a few months. Since his father has to take a rest, Krishna decides to run the family business. What happens when Krishna decides to run the business? What exactly is the profession of Krishna’s father? How did Mithra’s family get themselves involved with Krishna’s family business? Forms the rest of the story.

Performances:

Suhas did a good job with his performance in comedy episodes. His ability to appear so effortless while generating fun, worked well at many places in the film. He did a decent job during the emotional sequences. Shivani Nagaram, delivered a decent job with her performance. She too did well during the comedy portions. Especially, the way she delivered the dialogue ‘Maadi chala orthodox family’, multiple times in the film, generated good laughs.

Sudarshan’s comedy timing and dialogue delivery are the major plus points of the film. He generated a good amount of laughs in almost every sequence in which he appeared. V K Naresh, made his presence felt during the emotional sequences. However, the comedy portions for his character, would have been written and executed in a better way. Vennela Kishore generated good laughs, although a few people may find it uncomfortable, in one episode in the first half. Harsha Vardhan and Ajay Ghosh with their timing, generated a few laughs here and there. Senior actress, Annapurnamma and the veteran actor, Babu Mohan, in crucial roles made their presence felt.

Technicalities:

Vivek Sagar came up with two decent to good songs. And, his background score was alright. Overall, his work in the film is adequate. Cinematography by Mahi Reddy Pandugula, is decent. He delivered a standard output to suit the scale and theme of the film. Viplav Nysdam’s editing would have been a bit better in the second half. Production values by ‘Trishul Visionary Studios’, are adequate. Let’s discuss the work of director and writer, Gopi Atchara, in detail in the analysis section.

Positives:

1.⁠ ⁠Fun Portions
2.⁠ ⁠Sudarshan’s Comedy Timing
3.⁠ ⁠A Few Good Dialogues

Negatives:

1.⁠ ⁠Unexciting Drama
2.⁠ ⁠Clichéd Narration
3.⁠ ⁠Melodrama

Analysis:

The entire promotional campaign of the film revolved around the profession or the business of the lead character and his family. In a way, the makers succeeded in generating curiosity and setting the expectations right among the audience by stressing the word ‘business’ during the promotions. To stay away from spoilers, let us not disclose the details about the profession. The ‘business’ theme on which the story of a father and son is narrated, can be made into an out-and-out comedy drama or a serious social drama. But, the director chose to make it as a social dramedy. In doing so, he succeeded as long as the film stuck to comedy episodes, but the film lost track, the moment the director started to blend the film with drama and a message.

The film has at least five sequences that generated very good laughs. The fun quotient during the pre-interval, interval episodes and a majority of the episodes involving the actor, Sudarshan, worked in favour of the film. Considering the core plot of the film, the director deserves special appreciation for not choosing the ‘below the belt’ comedy. Barring one or two instances, the film largely had clean comedy. Apart from executing the comedy portions well, the writer and director, also came up with a few very effective and heart-touching dialogues. Especially the dialogue – ‘Mogudu, koduku, anna.. inka chala perlu petti thanani pilichina kani… Nanna ani thanani pilichinappude…mogadu…oka hero la feel avvutadu’, worked out so well in explaining the emotional turmoil of a father to his son.

When a director chooses a sensible socially relevant topic as the backdrop of the film and decides to justify a certain profession, it should be executed as a serious drama with subtle social satire to generate fun. It looks artificial and out of sync when a filmmaker generates fun using a profession and social awkwardness around it, during the first and second acts and suddenly, takes a turn during the third act of the film to ‘justify’ the profession. It is where the film lost its track. The sudden shift in tone from comedy portions to serious drama, worked against the film. Also, the drama portions are executed in a very bland manner with unexciting writing and beaten-to-death narration. The entire third act of the film appeared so out of place and bored the audience to a large extent.

Overall, Hey Balwanth, has its moments and it worked to an extent because of the comedy portions and a few well-written dialogues but the film would have been much better had better care been taken in writing and executing the drama portions, especially during the second half.

Final Verdict – Fun Worked. Drama Did Not.

Rating – 2.5/5

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