BENGALURU: Bengaluru police on Monday arrested a stunt master on charges of negligence for causing the death of a 29-year-old woman and her five-year-old daughter during the shooting of a stunt action scene for a Kannada/Telugu film Ranam.
Sumera and Ayera died when a cylinder caught fire, shot up and came down on them when they were watching the shoot at Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board in Mahadevakodigehalli village on Friday. The police, during investigation, found that the arrested Subhash K (51) had not handled the properties properly — in this case a nitrogen cylinder that was to cause an explosion between two colliding cars — and that had caused the cylinder to fire up and shoot like a rocket killing the woman and her daughter.
Meanwhile, a special police team is searching for the film producer and its renowned Tollywood director V Samudra in neighbouring states and their movements are being tracked for three days.
A senior police officer said Subhash K was nabbed from his house at Kaggalipura on Kanakapura Road based on credible information. He was arrested in the early hours and taken into police custody.
He claimed to be an expert at blasting cars during stunt action film shooting and has worked for several films. He also claimed to be the only person in the film industry here to carry out blast scenes using nitrogen cylinders.
A senior stunt master, who did not wish to be identified, told The New Indian Express, “Many producers and stunt directors bring amateur stunt masters to save money. It costs more to bring experts from Chennai. The mishap happened as they did not use proper technical methods during the shoot.”
Meanwhile, S A Chinne Gowda, president of the Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce, on Monday visited the family of the victims as well as the injured eight-year-old Zainab, elder daughter of the deceased Sumera, in a private hospital. He assured the family that action will be taken against the film crew and justice will be done to the victims.
Chinne Gowda told this paper, “I have written a letter to the director and producer of ‘Ranam’ film to give an explanation about the tragic incident. I even tried contacting them when the incident came to light. But they have not responded so far. Once I get a reply from them, further action will be taken from the chamber.”
The police have booked cases against the producer, director and the technical team of the film under various section of the IPC, including the Explosives Substances Act.