A Pawn In The Game Of Snakes And Ladders!

There is this shocking news that film art director Nitin Chandrakant Desai committed suicide in his ND studio. Nitin hails from Mulund. I came to live in Mulund in 90’s. We belong to the same field. The field of painting, that is. I am from JJ and he was also in JJ for one year but later went to study in Raheja of Bandra.

He and I had common friends. A relative of mine was also his very close friend. But somehow, I’ve never had much interaction with him. Friends like Nitin Arekar or in fact neighbors from Karjat would often say to me that they would introduce me to Nitin Desai. Once you come to Karjat, you can see the studio, we can have a chat and so on. But I couldn’t because I got too involved in my own things or maybe it’s because I don’t like the glamorous field of movies much and the main thing is boredom with any kind of travel. That could possibly be the reason why.

But I was following Nitin from the beginning. Not just him, but I used to keep an eye on the achievements of the go-getters in the field of painting and those who did something different. Maybe it’s because I’m in journalism, or maybe because of the creation of ‘Chinha’, I used to constantly mull over such topics.

Nitin’s journey in this industry was closely observed by many of my friends like Dr Prakash Sarang. I think the entire journey of ‘Chanakya’ was closely observed by Dr Prakash. And he used to talk about it often. However, around that time the publication of ‘Chinha’ had stopped. By the time the second season of ‘Chinha’ started, ‘Nitin Chandrakant Desai’ had become a very big name in the film industry.

Most of the ten or eleven issues of ‘Chinha’ released in the second season were special issues. But in the other issues, we had a series ‘Je Je Jagi Jagle’ which became very popular. But who knows how we fell short of contacting him, obviously not being able to interview him. It didn’t even get accomplished until the publication of the issue was stopped.

However, that occasion came during the forthcoming book of ‘Chinha’, titled ‘Je Je Jagi Jagle’. A fan of ‘Chinha’ who later became my friend, Prof Nitin Arekar took complete responsibility of writing the narrations of the dignitaries who contributed to this book. And incidentally, the very first writeup which he did was of Nitin Desai’s. But the first draft of it did not appeal to me much. Arekar, however, later improvised it the way I wanted it to be. To tell you the truth, Arekar’s subsequent 15 to 16 writeups in ‘Je Je Jagi’ book were nothing short of amazing. That is, once one starts reading those, one cannot stop until it is over. One can read it as many times as one wishes and will get hooked onto it.

But then I wondered, why should this happen only in the case of Nitin Desai’s writeup? I found the answer to that question while discussing with Prof Arekar. The answer was that Nitin Desai studied at JJ for only one year and thereafter he found daily commute to VT cumbersome and completed his further education from Raheja School of Art. That’s why he might not have been able speak as much about JJ. Me and Arekar had a lot of discussion on this. Arekar suggested that let’s talk to Nitin Desai once again and rewrite that article. But Arekar’s writing of ‘Je Je Jagi’ lingered a lot. Because of illness in his house, death of loved ones and running of his PhD, corona lockdown took a lot of time, and the publication of the book was delayed.

But now everything has started falling in place. Only because the readers of ‘Chinha’, have put their utmost faith in ‘Chinha’ and eventually in me, this ambitious book is coming to completion. The book will be published around Diwali. But now that article of Nitin Chandrakant Desai cannot be edited and written. Everything is over today morning.

***

I can’t help but to share an anecdote in this context. As soon as the campaign we did for ‘Je Je Jagi Jagle’ went live on Facebook, some of Nitin Desai’s old colleagues or friends created a huge commotion on Facebook. They tried trolling me too. Because (according to them) Nitin Desai never studied in JJ, so how can he be included in the book on JJ, so on and so forth. But as editor I had taken enough precaution before interviewing Nitin Desai in this regard. I had spoken to former Dean of J J Applied Art Prof Mangesh Rajadhyaksha, Prof. Prabhakar Kolte of J J School of Art, the senior art teacher at Raheja School of Art Shirish Mithbavkar and Achyut Palav, and many students who studied during that time, for confirmation. Only then Nitin was interviewed.

But his over-smart friends / colleagues created a ruckus on Facebook. I also gave them appropriate answer, but it was probably not acceptable to them. Because after posting that ad on the WhatsApp group I had created regarding De-novo, his old friends once again created a mess there. They were even not willing to trust Prof Rajadhyaksha, Prof Kolte, Prof Mithbavkar and Achyut Palav. They had so much hatred towards Nitin. Even those who never met Nitin jumped into the controversy. I was so upset by that I left the WhatsApp group I had created.

As if this wasn’t enough, once again the same person (probably a film art director, can’t remember the name now.) sprang up once again created a mess on Facebook. But then I got angry and gave him a stern reply. And threatened to block him. After that, however, this never happened again. But I’m sure he’s going to make a splash again when we launch the video campaign of ‘Je Je Jagi’ from August 15th. I wouldn’t be surprised if he reacted the same way to this post.

***

Very recently, my interview was scheduled to be telecasted on Doordarshan’s ‘Ranga Yei Wo’ program. It’s promo also came out. But suddenly, who knows what happened, it was canceled and an interview with Nitin Chandrakant Desai was presented there for two consecutive weeks. I did not get to see that interview. But I got to see the promo that came from Mumbai Doordarshan on that occasion. I was shocked to see Nitin’s look in it. “Oh gosh! Why does he look like this? What happened to him? What did he look like before?” I literally screamed. He looked as if he was sitting in an old palace that had enjoyed a lot of glory in the past.

Perhaps there is a close connection between that appearance and his suicide today.

*******

Satish Naik

Editor ‘Chihn Art News’