HYDERABAD: An upcoming film director, Raj Aditya, alias Rajakumaran Thampi, whose latest Telugu flick, ‘‘Malli Malli’’ was scheduled for release on Saturday, was found dead at a hotel room in Secunderabad.
He is said to have hanged himself from the ceiling fan in room at Hotel Basera sometime after midnight.
Born in Kerala, 35-year-old Aditya had been visiting the city frequently for the last seven months ever since the shooting of his film commenced and was staying at the Hotel Basera. Some eight years ago, Aditya worked on the movie ‘Ishtam’ as an assistant director and a couple of years ago, he directed the movie ‘Pourudu’ with Sumanth (cine star Nagarjuna’s relative) in the lead.
It was around 9.15 am, when Aditya’s colleague, Sreeman, who is also the assistant director of the film, went to his room and knocked on the door.
However, when there was no reply, he grew suspicious and informed the matter to the hotel staff.
The staff opened the door using the master key and found Aditya hanging from the ceiling fan with a bedsheet. Immediately, the Gopalpuram police came in and shifted the body for post-mortem examination. The reason behind the drastic step is yet to be ascertained.
“Aditya along with his team (of Malli Malli) was supposed to watch the film in the morning and Sreeman went to the room to pick him up,” Gopalpuram Sub-Inspector Yadagiri said.
He said the young director last spoke to his mother around midnight. “A case of suspicious death has been registered and a probe is on to know the reasons,” Yadagiri said adding that his clothes and a laptop were found in the room.
Aditya’s wife, Deepti Nair and their three-yearold daughter stay in Chennai and Aditya was shuttling between these two cities for the last several months. His father, Sreekumaran Thampi, is a Malayalam film director while Aditya’s mother is away in Dubai. While the reason behind the extreme step is being ascertained, police said Aditya appeared disturbed last three days after one of his relatives died of cancer.
“He was taking sleeping pills and went to a hospital to get a check-up done. He was feeling uneasy ever since he learnt about his relative’s death,” police said adding that Aditya had told his colleagues that he was very disturbed. His colleagues told the media that Aditya was very friendly and never gave an impression that he could be having problems on the personal front.
