Art director Nitin Chandrakant Desai, who allegedly died by suicide, was cremated today. Many Marathi film celebrities like Manoj Joshi and politicians also gathered there to pay their respects at the . Nitin Desai family, including his son Siddhant and daughter Mansi, bid an emotional farewell. While the police is yet to share further details about the cause of his death, initial reports claim he died by alleged suicide.
Among those present from Bollywood were sanjay leela Bhansali and Aamir Khan. The art director’s grand vision, evident in dramas like Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Devdas, Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam and Ashutosh Gowariker’s Jodha Akbar and Lagaan, always delivered on the spectacular, while maintaining a refined sense of aesthetic propriety. Following his breakthrough in filmmaker Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s period film 1942: A Love Story, Nitin went on to contribute to numerous successful films, including Mira Nair’s Salaam Bombay, Rajkumar Hirani’s Munnabhai series, Swades, Jodhaa Akbar and Slumdog Millionaire among others.
Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam marked the start of Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s extravagant filmmaking style. It was Nitin Desai who brought Bhansali’s vision to life with opulence, rich colours and epic strokes in every frame. His work earned him his second National Award for the film. In the 2002 blockbuster Devdas, he teamed up with Bhansali once again to create a visually stunning film. The sets were grander, the song sequences were never-seen-before, and the opulence in the movie with Shah Rukh Khan, Aishwarya Rai and Madhuri Dixit was unparalleled.
According to a report carried in NDTV, the late art director had been facing financial difficulties, struggling to repay a ₹252-crore loan. A bankruptcy court had recently admitted an insolvency petition against his company, ND’s Art World Pvt Ltd. Reportedly, Desai’s financial troubles started in January 2020 after his company borrowed ₹185 crore through two loans from ECL Finance in 2016 and 2018.
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