Renowned film art director Nitin Desai was found hanging on Wednesday at his ND Studios in Maharashtra's Raigad district. While the police is investigating the case, our sources revealed that "no suicide note was found, however, an audio recording was there. The forensic team is on it." The art director had defaulted on a Rs 250-crore loan to its financial creditor, and a bankruptcy court had admitted an insolvency petition against his company last week.
Nitin Desai was under heavy debt
Desai's company, ND's Art World Pvt Ltd, had borrowed Rs 180 crore through two loans from CFM. This loan agreement was signed in 2016 and 2018, and troubles with repayments started in January 2020. For this, Desai had mortgaged a total of 42 acres of land. After some time, the CFM assigned all its loan accounts to Edelweiss Asset Reconstruction Company but even then the loan was not recovered. That is why the Edelweiss Company had sought permission to take action under the SARFAESI Act for debt recovery by confiscating the property of the mortgaged land. This proposal was given in the month of September last year and is still pending. Due to this, Desai was in dire financial straits. He had also discussed this matter with Khalapur MLA Mahesh Baldi a few days ago.
According to the sources, finance company Edelweiss was about to auction ND Studio for debt recovery. About 15 years ago, Reliance bought 50 per cent stake in ND Studio but later Anil Ambani's company itself went into debt, due to which the dream of making ND -- a world-class studio was broken.
Although the exact reasons which led him to commit suicide are not known, the police have found an audio recording. "In the recording, Desai has also mentioned not to take his ND Studios away from him. He also mentioned that his last rites be performed at Studio no 10." The preparations for his last rites are going on at the helipad in this studio.
Mayur Thombare, who takes construction contracts in ND studio, got a call and when he reached the studio, Nitin had already committed suicide by hanging himself with a rope on an iron rod. He further told that there is a set where the shooting of “Marathi Paul Padte Pudhe” was taking place, where Nitin Desai tied a bow with a rope and hung himself in the middle of it. He told a friend Yogesh Thakur that he should come in the morning to take the recovered which was kept in the studio. Soon, the police was informed about the same.
There is footage of the place where Nitin Desai committed suicide.
Nitin Desai was working on web series
About a month and a half ago, Nitin Desai was very excited about his web series 'Maharana Pratap', for which a look test was done with Gurmeet Choudhary, for the lead star. The 30-episode series was supposed to be aired on Disney Hotstar.
ALSO READ: Nitin Desai: Popular works, awards, films, stars worked with and more about the famous art director
About Nitin Desai
He made his debut as an art director in 1989 with 'Parinda' and went to work on several other projects. Some of his works include '1942: A Love Story' (1993), 'Khamoshi: The Musical' (1995), 'Pyaar To Hona Hi Tha' (1998), 'Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam' (1999), 'Mission Kashmir' (2000), 'Raju Chacha' (2000), 'Devdas' (2002), 'Munnabhai MBBS' (2003), 'Jodhaa Akbar' (2008), 'Dostana' (2008), 'Once Upon a Time in Mumbai' (2010) and 'Prem Ratan Dhan Payo '(2015) to name a few.
ALSO READ: Nitin Desai, art director of Lagaan and Jodhaa Akbar, dies by suicide at ND Studio
