Bollywood art director Nitin Desai, found dead at studio, defaulted on Rs2.5-billion loan: Report

Renowned Indian art director Nitin Desai, who was found dead at his studio in Maharashtra, India, on Wednesday, had defaulted on a loan of Rs2.52 billion (around Dh112 million) loan, according to Indian media reports.

According to PTI, an insolvency petition was filed against the 58-year-old Desai in a bankruptcy court.

B N Tiwari, President of Federation of Western India Cine Employees (FWICE) told Indian media that Desai had sought help from him as he was struggling to repay a loan.

“Nitin Desai had financial issues and had reached out to me for help as he wanted a bank loan to repay some other loans. Also the studio business had reduced after Covid, most big shoots shifted back to Mumbai,” said Tiwari.

Maharashtra member of legislative assembly (MLA) Mahesh Baldi, too, said that Desai was facing problems. “When we met a month ago, he had told me that he was under financial stress. Prima facie this seems like the only reason for his death by suicide,” Baldi told news agency ANI.

“He had told me that new movies were coming his way, but it looked like only TV shows were being shot at ND Studios, which may not have strengthened his condition,” the MLA added.

Desai had worked as an art director and production designer for a number of films and television shows, including Aamir Khan’s Lagaan (2001) and Jodhaa Akbar (2008) starring Hrithik Roshan.

Desai’s company, ND's Art World Pvt Ltd, had taken two loans totalling Rs1.85 billion (Dh82 million) from ECL Finance — a Non-Banking Financial Company — in 2016 and 2018, the PTI report cited above said. Desai had started facing trouble repaying the loan in January 2020.

• Bollywood: Lagaan art director Nitin Desai found dead, suicide suspected