As gory details about the reasons why celebrated art director Nitin Desai took the extreme step of ending his life come to the fore, it has emerged that he was in huge debt of Rs. 252 crore including interest on the money he had borrowed. Desai was found hanging at the centre of his studio floor at Karjat near Bombay on 2nd August morning. He had reached his ND Studios the previous night and had asked his manager to see him the following morning. But the unsuspecting manager witnessed a ghastly sight when he reached the studio the next morning. No suicide note was found. The news of Nitin Desai’s death, quite understandably, sent shock waves in the industry.
As Nitin Desai was not able to service his loan of Rs. 180 crore, a bankruptcy court had initiated insolvency proceedings against the company last week. Independent MLA Mahesh Baldi said, “Desai was in deep financial trouble and that could be the reason for him taking the drastic step of ending his life. I had met Desai two months ago when he told me about his financial problem.” Meanwhile, Maharashtra deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis announced in the Assembly today (3rd) that Rashesh Shah and his ARC Edelweiss would also be investigated in connection with the suicide. The announcement came after Bandra West MLA Ashish Shelar demanded that the inquiry into Desai’s death must not be carried out from a larger perspective. He said that Nitin Desai had taken a loan of Rs. 180 crore on ND Studios, which rose to Rs. 252 crore. “This brings to the spotlight the functioning of the lending system by one Rashesh Shah and his ARC Edelweiss,” said Shelar. Saying so, Ashish Shelar demanded that a special inquiry team should investigate aspects such as the interest rate levied, the yearly changes to the rate, and the recovery methods employed by the company. He added that he was also aware of two more cases against the same lender (ARC Edelweiss).
Desai set up the ND Studios, spread over 52 acres of land at Karjat, in 2005. However, the project became commercially unviable because, among other things, production declined in the uncertain post-COVID times as producers, directors, writers and stars struggled to understand what the audience wanted in terms of content and stories in films. Besides this, several state governments over the last few years have been offering subsidies to producers for shooting films in their states in order to give a boost to tourism, because of which shootings have seen a shift from Bombay and Maharashtra to all over India. There are also many makers who these days believe in shooting on real locations than on sets. Although the market of web series is booming, many makers of web series prefer shooting on actual locations to studios.
Besides film sets, Desai had organised and presented the Republic Day tableau of Maharashtra for more than 10 years. He had also organised the Raigad Festival in 2015 atop the historic Raigad Fort. He was behind the light and sound shows on Ganga Dwar and the walls of Lalita and Jalasen Ghats in Varanasi. It was Desai who was instrumental in holding the digital shows at the Kashi Vishwanath Dham museum in the holy city.