Tinsel town tweets condolences, calls for safety measures

 The Kannada film fraternity took to social media platforms, Facebook and Twitter, to express their shock over the death of the two actors. One of them, actor-turned politician Ramya, was more forthright, hinting that the accident took place due to poor preparation.

She tweeted: “Don’t think the stunt master thought through the process. It takes skill to swim beneath a hovering helicopter creating gale-force winds. Regardless of whether you are the lead actor or not, every crew member must be safeguarded - The Kannada film industry must make it a rule.”

In his tweet, actor Yash noted that the two victims had toiled hard to be successful at every stage in their lives. “May God give their families the strength to bear with this loss,” tweeted the actor.

Actor Jaggesh, in an emotional tweet, said: “Fate, you are so cruel. The tragic deaths is very saddening. The two harboured so many dreams, and I have seen that in their eyes. Nobody should meet with such an end.”

For actor Sudeep, the death of Anil and Uday was “very upsetting.” He tweeted: “Anil worked wth me in Hebbuli..Silent and a very hard worker.. really sad. RIP.” Darshan Thoogudeepa tweeted that it was like a death in the family. “It is totally depressing and shocking. R.I.P. Deepest Condolences to #RaghavaUday & #Anil families.”

Several Kannada film buffs were also active on Twitter, questioning the safety arrangements at the film-shooting site. Tweeted one of them, Charan, “No rope, no safety measurements at all. Proper precautions would have saved two lives. RIP.”

Pradyumna Narahalli, amateur filmmaker, said in a Facebook post that it was natural for people to get angry against the team of #Mastigudi for not taking suitable precautions and being overconfident and casual about the dangerous stunt.

He said the artistes had claimed that they were not great swimmers. “It is common sense that you need to have a rescue plan to save your artistes. Any upcoming artiste would want to prove his worth and would be willing to go the extra mile, but the experts need to know the flip side of their creativity,” the post said.

For Meera Gopinath, the deaths were a reflection of carelessness. “Absolutely no safety gear or back-up plan in place. When the producer bragged about spending Rs 1.2 crore on this stunt and called the media to cover it, he couldn't bother to provide basic safety gear for the supporting actors,” she said in her post.