When reel became real: Rohit Arya had told crew they were going to shoot children hostage situation

Mumbai: Rohit Arya 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, his videographer said on Friday.

Arya took 17 children and two adults hostage inside R A Studio in Powai on Thursday before being shot dead by police during a rescue operation.

Videographer Rohan Aher, who had been working with Arya for the last 10 years and was a prime witness during the three-hour drama, recounted the sequence of events before the media.

The auditions which Arya was conducting at a studio in Powai, ostensibly for a web series, had got over by Wednesday, but Arya extended them by another day, he said.

Aher had shot films for Arya's initiatives including `Swachhta Monitor' and `Lets Change' projects, he said.

On Wednesday, Arya told him that they were going to shoot a hostage situation involving children, Aher said. Arya also asked him to bring five liters of petrol and firecrackers for the shoot, but Aher did not follow the instructions as there were going to be children in the studio, he said.

When Aher reached the studio on Thursday morning, a spot boy told him nobody was allowed to go into the studio upstairs. After some time, Arya himself came down, and told him they wanted to shoot a scene involving fire, and he had brought bottles of rubber solution for the purpose, Aher said.

Arya also asked him to lock the gate and all the entry points of the studio. Subsequently, Arya poured the rubber solution and set it on fire in front of the children, he said.

Aher and others were scared and asked him not to do it, so Arya, wielding an air gun, asked Aher to stay away. Aher ran out of the studio and told the people standing outside they should call police, he said.

He then went upstairs and broke a glass window of the studio with a hammer (in an attempt to rescue the children inside), sustaining an injury to his hand, Aher said, adding that Arya sprayed pepper spray into his eyes, making him fall down the staircase.

Aher, however, helped a senior citizen woman who was inside to come out, and she too sustained a head injury in the process, he said.

In the meantime, police had reached the spot and started negotiations with Arya.

Aher again sneaked into the studio and asked the children to get out with him, but four children remained inside, he said.

By this time the police had forced entry into the studio.

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

As per the police, Arya fired an air gun at them, and was hit in the chest in retaliatory firing. He was declared dead in hospital.