We saw him holding a gun. He asked us to behave, and then told us to call our parents one by one over the phone,” recounted an 11-year-old from Kolhapur who was held hostage with 15 other children at the RA Studio in Powai on Thursday. The young girl and her immediate family travelled to the city of dreams last week. Having scored a few on-screen roles in Marathi serials and movies, the young star attended workshops and trial shoots that were taking place at the studio.
Opening up about what happened before her captor, Rohit Arya, was gunned down by the police, she said, “We were only supposed to audition for five days, and Wednesday was supposed to be our last day. However, Rohit Arya formed three teams of children. He then sent a few of them home and called the rest of us for an extra shoot day. He had been friendly all along.”
RA Studio in Powai, where the incident took place, on Thursday. Pic/By Special Arrangement
“We asked to be present at 9.30 am on Thursday, and I showed up by 9.45 am. As usual, we had a good breakfast, and we were sent up to the room on the first floor. We stayed there for a while, and the door was initially open. But he eventually shut the door, and we remained inside. After a while, we started asking questions and wanted to go outside, as some had to use the bathroom. Rohit Arya told us that a ‘scene’ was being shot and we must remain there. After some time, we began hearing the cries of our parents from outside. That’s when my grandmother stepped in,” she said.
Granny steps in
Mangal Jagganath Patankar, 75, happened to be the 17th person inside the room. The senior citizen would routinely sit inside the studio to beat the heat while the child’s parents waited downstairs. Mangal got up to see what was happening and called out to her daughter to inform her that everyone was all right. She then ushered the children into another room and began keeping a watch on them.
Rohit Arya, who held 16 children and a senior citizen captive before being gunned down by the police
“We were scared at first, but we were told that our parents would come get us. Rohit Arya was carrying a gun, and he asked us to behave and cooperate. He was asking us to call our parents one by one. We requested our parents to come get us. I think he had asked them to get money,” she added. According to her family and friends, the police intervened before she could make the call.
While the police tried to break open the room of locked children, the door allegedly fell on Mangal, who was consequently injured and rushed to the closest medical centre, Nirali Healthcare Facility in Chandivli. There, she was told that she had sustained a deep injury to her left axilla, with muscle tear and vessel rupture, and was also administered four to five stitches on her forehead.
Rare opportunity
The young girl came across the Mumbai-based acting opportunity on a WhatsApp group. In fact, it had even appeared on their school’s WhatsApp group. Happy to take it on, the young girl, with her father, mother, and maternal grandmother, had set out from Kolhapur to Mumbai for trial shoots and acting workshops that were to take place at RA Studio. The four bunked with her uncle in Thane, while the child would visit the studios from October 26.
While both the girl and her grandmother are out of danger, the parents of the child have been shaken up. Her father, Sachin Jadhav, said, “We had come for one thing, and then we faced a whole other ordeal. We thought it would be a good opportunity for her since she had already been cast for TV.”
With both her mother’s and daughter’s lives on the line, Vijaya Jadhav faced one of the tensest situations of her life. “I nearly fainted twice. I am eternally grateful to my mother for being there with the children inside. Now, I am a little nervous about sending my daughter to auditions,” she told the media.
How food stall vendor’s son narrowly avoided being held hostage
Umesh Tiwari, who runs a food stall near RA Studio, had also sent his son for the auditions that culminated in Thursday’s hostage drama. After two days of auditions and training, his son, Prince, was put on the waiting list. They were told that they would be contacted in December.
Umesh Tiwari. PIC/RITIKA GONDHALEKAR
At the time of the crisis, Tiwari was at his stall and could hear the screams and cries of the parents of the children who were being held captive inside the studio. Hearing this, he ran towards the building, climbed the bamboo scaffolding around it and tried to look inside. The entire studio had been covered with curtains by Rohit Arya.
From time to time, Arya would open the curtains and look outside. When he lifted the curtain at one such moment, Tiwari managed to catch a glimpse inside and was shocked to see that Arya had made some of the children sit on the floor. On a table in front of them, there were flammable materials. Arya then proceeded to threaten Tiwari and point a gun at him. Tiwari then immediately called the police, bringing the incident to light.
