Noted Art Director Nitin Desai, Found Dead At Home, Defaulted On Rs 252 Crore Loan

Noted art director Nitin Chandrakant Desai, who was found dead at his studio in Maharashtra's Raigad, had trouble paying back a Rs 252-crore loan, and a bankruptcy court had admitted an insolvency petition against his company last week.

Nitin Desai's company, ND's Art World Pvt Ltd, had reportedly borrowed Rs 185 crore through two loans from ECL Finance in 2016 and 2018. His financial troubles began in January 2020.

Nitin Desai's body was found at the ND Studio premises this morning. The police suspect he died by suicide.

The noted art director, known for projects like Lagaan and Devdas, had opened the sprawling studio in the Khalapur taluka on the outskirts of Mumbai, where films like Jodha Akbar were shot.

His company ND's Art World is also in the business of organising, maintaining, and operating replicas of historical monuments and providing facilities and services related to hotels, theme restaurants, shopping malls and recreation centres.

On July 25, the Mumbai bench of the National Company Law Tribunal had admitted a petition filed by Edelweiss Asset Reconstruction Company to initiate a corporate insolvency resolution process.

The tribunal's Member (judicial) HV Subba Rao and member (technical) Anu Jagmohan Singh, after hearing both the sides, had appointed Jitender Kothari as the interim resolution professional.

The management of ND's Art World would be with Kothari during the process, the order had said.

Typically, the insolvency professional has to ensure that all the creditors get their dues by selling securities, and has to take care of day-to-day business operations.

The order said that the account was classified as a non-performing asset (NPA) by the creditors on March 31, 2021, and the total default amount was Rs 252.48 crore as of June 30, 2022.

In its reply before the order, Nitin Desai's company had said there was a fire at the studio on May 7, 2021, which resulted in loss of property, and blamed the creditors for sending a recovery notice on the same day.

Reports suggested the financial creditor had approached district authorities in Raigad to take possession of ND Studio a few months ago.