Bhubaneswar: Police in Talasari registered a case against five members of a production house, holding them prima facie responsible for the death of Bengali actor Rahul Arunoday Banerjee (43) during the shooting of a TV serial at Talasari beach in Balasore district on March 29. They were booked on charges of negligence and for misrepresenting facts related to the incident.Balasore SP Pratyush Diwakar said, “We have registered the case against five key functionaries of Magic Moments Motion Picture Pvt Ltd — directors Subhasish Mondal, Saibal Banerjee and Leena Gangopadhyay, floor executive producer Shantanu Nandi, and production manager Chandra Sekhar Chakraborty alias Sekhar Chakraborty — on charges of negligence leading to the actor’s death and for fabricating a false narrative around the offence. Investigation is ongoing and the suspects as well as other crew members would be interrogated.”The case was registered following a complaint lodged late Saturday night by Rahul’s actor wife, Priyanka Sarkar, at Talasari Marine police station. Earlier, an unnatural death case had been filed at Digha Mohana coastal police station in West Bengal on March 29.In her complaint, seen by TOI, Priyanka alleged that the production house had neither obtained official permission from Odisha govt authorities to conduct the shoot nor implemented safety protocols for filming in the sea. She stated that locals had warned the crew to halt shooting, citing the beach’s notoriety for quicksand and unpredictable tides, but the warnings were ignored.She accused the production house of concealing the true sequence of events and misleading the police. According to her, contradictory audio-video statements from crew members raised suspicion, while accounts from local witnesses aired on news channels pointed to negligence and lack of safety measures. “It establishes that the production house committed gross negligence, deliberately avoided accountability, and misrepresented the facts to build a false narrative and escape legal consequences,” Priyanka alleged in her FIR.Subhasish (who is one of those booked in the case) had recently told the media that shooting had officially ended when Rahul insisted on an unscripted drone shot. According to him, Rahul and co-actor Sweta Mishra were filming in knee-deep water when a wave unsettled Sweta, prompting her to leave. Rahul reportedly went deeper into the sea for a second take despite requests from the crew to return. A stronger wave caused him to slip and swallow water. Subhasish claimed the team and lifeguards tried to rescue him, and though Rahul briefly responded en route to the hospital, he was declared dead upon arrival.
