Renowned art director and production designer Nitin Chandrakant Desai died by suicide at his studio (N D Studios) in Karjat, 80 km from Mumbai, yesterday. As per reports, he was going through financial stress and speculation is that this could have been the reason for him to take this step.

In his career spanning 20 years, he worked with prominent filmmakers like Ashutosh Gowariker, Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Rajkumar Hirani and Sanjay Leela Bhansali. He was the brain behind the sets of Hindi films like 1942: A Love Story (1994), Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam (1999), Lagaan: Once Upon A Time In India (2001), Devdas (2002), Lage Raho Munna Bhai (2006), Jodhaa Akbar (2008) and Once Upon A Time in Mumbaai (2010) to name a few.

His last venture as an art director was Panipat (2019). He had also created the sets for the Oscar-winning film Slumdog Millionaire (2008). Desai won several awards throughout his career, including four National Awards.

In 2005, Desai established N D Studios in Karjat, which was spread over 52 acres. This studio has played host to many movies as well as the reality show Big Boss. He also tried his hand at acting and has been credited as an actor in Daud (1997) and the Marathi movie Hello Jai Hind! (2011), which he directed.

Last month, Desai had performed a pooja at his studio in anticipation of the upcoming festival of Ganesh Chaturthi. He was working on the pandal decoration for Mumbai’s iconic Ganpati mandal Lalbaugcha Raja. He was also busy with an OTT show on Maharana Pratap.

Regarding his demise, Raigad Superintendent of Police (SP) Somnath Gharghe said, “Police were informed by a worker on the set. When the team reached the studio, we saw his body hanging. We are investigating further to ascertain all the aspects in this case.”

- With inputs from ANI

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There is a sense of magic as the lights in a theatre dim for we are often, within moments, transported into another world. And if we were lucky, we would be transported to a world created by art director Nitin Desai. From the earthy village of Lagaan (2001) to the vibrancy of Devdas (2002), from the 16th century palaces of Jodhaa Akbar (2008) to the ’70s Bombay in Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai (OUATIM, 2010), there wasn’t a setting that the four-time National Award winner had not introduced us to.

OUATIM director Milan Luthria remembers how he began shooting the gangster film with Ajay Devgn and Emraan Hashmi in real locations across Mumbai. Soon, crowd-management issues made him consider filming on sets. That’s when someone recommended the production designer to him.

“I told Nitin what I had in mind. He said, ‘Don’t worry, it will all happen in my studio [ND Studios, Karjat].’ He came back with a plan and sketches of how he was going to turn around various parts of his studio. He made a vintage café, made Sultan’s [Devgn’s character] house all white, and made the bustling streets where we shot the song, Pee Loon. His greatest quality was that he could adapt to the sensibility of the film. He realized that each movie had a different demand, which is why every film of his looks different,” he shares.

The director remembers that the climax where Devgn’s character is shot at while delivering a speech was the most challenging. But Desai, he says, came up with quick solutions.

“The studio originally didn’t look that way. There was chaos, but he quickly changed the colours of the backdrop, erected a wall on one side and removed certain fountains, saying that the style did not match the era we were depicting. He was hands-on. If you had an issue and needed a solution, Nitin was the man,” adds Luthria.

The studio originally didn’t look that way. There was chaos, but he quickly changed the colours of the backdrop, erected a wall on one side and removed certain fountains, saying that the style did not match the era we were depicting. He was hands-on. If you had an issue and needed a solution, Nitin was the man,” adds Luthria.

Desai had won National Awards for his work in Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar (1998), Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam (1999), Lagaan and Devdas. But to Bhandarkar, his work went beyond grandeur.

“Nitin was synonymous with [elaborate] set design after his brilliant work in Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam and Devdas. But he was equally a genius in creating realistic sets for films like Traffic Signal, Jail [2009] and Indu Sarkar [2017]. He visited Yerawada and Thane prisons to create a realistic set for Jail. When I asked him [to recreate] Connaught Place, he promised that it would be as real as Delhi’s landmark location. I was amazed at the transformation. I clicked some pictures and sent it to my friends in Delhi, who couldn’t believe it was a set.”

A trait of Desai that endeared him to the director was his ability to make good his promises. “He was always flexible with budgets and would say, ‘Main kar ke deta hoon.’”

Director Ketan Mehta shares that the Aamir Khan-led Mangal Pandey: The Rising (2005) was the first endeavour to be shot in ND Studios that opened in 2005. “When he launched the studio, the qawwali song from Mangal Pandey was the first shoot on the location. Nitin was a disciplined and systematic designer. So, even before we began shooting, everything was pre-visualized and pre-decided with major contributions from the creative genius that Nitin was,” says Mehta, who worked with him over 28 years and several films.

Producer Ronnie Screwvala, who collaborated with Desai on several films, most notably Jodhaa Akbar and Fashion, remembers him as someone who thought big and created even bigger. “He always gave his all to whatever he did. He always thought big and then actually made it happen. I am very sad to hear the news, ” he says.

The particular permanent set in ND Studios, Karjat, where Desai was found dead on Wednesday

Set pieces used for the filming of Lagaan. Pics/Nimesh Dave