Navi Mumbai: The last rites of renowned Indian art director Nitin Desai, 58, will be performed on Friday at the studio premises.Desai was found dead at his ND Studio in Karjat, around 80 km from Mumbai on Wednesday morning.
Earlier, on Wednesday night, a team of four doctors conducted the post-mortem of Desai at Sir J J Hospital in Mumbai and found that prima facie, hanging was the cause of his death. However, further investigation is being carried out by Raigad police.
Nitin Desai's last wish was to have his funeral conducted at ND Studio
According to relatives, the body of Desai has been kept in the mortuary in Mumbai and will be taken to ND Studio on Friday for the last rites. It is learned that Desai left a note in which he expressed his wish for his last rites to be performed at the studio premises. Studio employees confirmed that the funeral will be held at ground number six in the studio.
The Raigad police confirmed that they recovered electronic devices near Desai's body and sent them to the forensic lab. Meanwhile, the police recorded the statements of employees of the studio.
Reason for suicide
According to sources, there were 11 audio clips in the voice recorder. In one of those audio clips, Desai reportedly made a revelation about who was responsible for his drastic step. The source informed that in the first audio, Desai said, 'My last salutation to the king of Lalbagh.' He also requested the state and central government to ensure that his studio should be used to nurture talent and should not go to the financers.
Nitin Desai's Schedule on the Day of His Death
Desai arrived in Mumbai on a flight from Delhi on Tuesday night. He reached ND Studio around 2:30 a.m. After arriving, he reportedly told someone to collect the voice recorder the next morning. On Wednesday morning, the manager tried to contact him to retrieve the recorder, but there was no response. Later, studio employees found him hanging near Mega Hall in the studio. The voice recorder was also discovered near his body. It is claimed that Desai took this drastic step near the set of the Marathi movie "Paul Padte Pudhe."
Desai mentioned 4 names in last voice note
While a suicide note was not recovered from the spot where Desai claimed his life, a recorded voice message has been found in his phone, which has a mention of four persons. The cops have refrained from revealing the names of the persons in public.
The death occurred amid Desai's financial troubles, as he had defaulted on a ₹252 crore loan, leading to insolvency proceedings being initiated against his company, ND's Art World Pvt Ltd, the previous week. The company had taken two loans in 2016 and 2018.
4 National Awards
Desai was a four-time National Award winner for Best Art Direction. He was known for designing lavish sets for blockbuster films such as "Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam," "Devdas," "Jodha Akbar," "Lagaan," and "Bajirao Mastani.
Local MNS leader Jitendra Patil added that Desai was upset and frustrated as some people in Bollywood were reportedly discouraging producers from shooting in his studio.
