`A hostage drama turned real': Videographer recounts Mumbai studio horror

Mumbai, Oct 31 (PTI) The line between fiction and reality was erased inside R A Studio in Powai when an audition, supposed to be the start of a dream for 17 children, spiraled into a waking nightmare, a terrifying event orchestrated by the very man who had promised them a role -- Rohit Arya.

The shocking account of how a creative shoot devolved into a violent crisis was given on Friday by Arya's videographer, Rohan Aher who had worked alongside him for a decade. He found himself a prime witness and a reluctant hero in the three-hour ordeal.

For ten years, Aher had been at Arya's side, filming projects like the 'Swachhta Monitor' and 'Lets Change' initiatives and the current project, ostensibly a web series, had already wrapped up auditions on Wednesday. But Arya had insisted on an extra day.

Arya, who received a bullet injury during rescue operation and subsequently died, had told his film crew that they were going to shoot a hostage drama involving children, without providing any inkling that he was planning a real-life situation which was to end in a tragedy, Aher said.

The filmmaker's true, dangerous intent became clear when he asked Aher on Wednesday to bring five liters of petrol and firecrackers. Fearing for the children, Aher wisely ignored the instruction.

When Aher reached the studio on Thursday morning, a spot boy told him nobody was allowed to go into the studio upstairs. Arya soon came down and asked his videographer to lock the main gate and all entry points and claimed he needed to shoot a fire scene and had brought bottles of rubber solution for the effect.

The situation turned critical when Arya poured the solution and set it ablaze in front of the trapped children. When Aher and others pleaded with him to stop, Arya, wielding an air gun, ordered them to stay away.

Realising the immediate threat, Aher ran outside to tell bystanders to call the police. But he didn't wait.

Driven to rescue the victims, Aher returned to the studio and used a hammer to break a glass window upstairs. Arya met this attempt with a blast of pepper spray to Aher's eyes, sending him tumbling down the stairs and sustaining a hand injury in the process.

Despite being injured and temporarily blinded, Aher focused on extraction and managed to help a senior citizen woman who was inside escape, though she sustained a head injury during the chaos.

As police arrived and began negotiating with Arya, Aher attempted a second heroic intervention and sneaked back into the studio and urged the children to flee with him.

Most successfully escaped, but four children remained inside as police forced entry, the prime witness recalled.

When Aher returned to bring out the remaining children, he heard gunfire, he said, adding he did not remember how many shots he heard.

Police confirmed that Arya had fired his air gun at officers and was subsequently hit in the chest by retaliatory fire, leading to his death at the hospital. PTI DC KRK SKL KRK