Balasore: Police in Odisha have registered a case against five senior functionaries of a production house in connection with the death of popular Bengali actor Rahul Arunoday Banerjee, who drowned while shooting at Talasari beach in Balasore district on March 29.
Subhasish Mondal, Saibal Banerjee, and Leena Gangopadhyay, directors of the television serial ‘Bhole Baba Par Karega’ along with floor executive producer Shantanu Nandi, and production manager Chandra Sekhar Chakraborty (alias Sekhar Chakraborty) have been booked for negligence and weaving a false narrative around the incident.
This followed a complaint filed by Priyanka Sarkar, wife of deceased Bengali actor, at Udaipur-Talasari police, at around 2 am on Sunday against the production house Magic Moments Motion Picture Pvt Ltd. She claimed the team conducted the shoot without obtaining necessary permissions from Odisha government authorities and failed to implement basic safety protocols for filming in the sea. Locals reportedly warned the crew multiple times to stop, citing the beach’s well-known dangers, including quicksand and unpredictable high tides, but these warnings were allegedly ignored. She further accused the production of concealing the true sequence of events, misleading police, and creating contradictory audio-video statements from crew members, while local witnesses pointed to a 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 stated in the FIR:
She was reportedly accompanied by several members of the Bengali film and television industry including actors Saurabh Chatterjee, Rituparna Sengupta and Prosenjit Chatterjee.
Additional SP of Balasore, Dibyajyoti Das, and DIG (Eastern Range) Pinak Mishra confirmed the registration of the case and added that investigation is underway, with coordination between Odisha and West Bengal police.
Earlier accounts from the production side, including statements by Subhasish Mondal, suggested that official shooting had wrapped up when Rahul insisted on an additional unscripted drone shot. According to that version, Rahul and co-actor Sweta Mishra were in knee-deep water when a wave affected Mishra, who was helped out. Rahul reportedly went deeper for a second take despite requests to return, slipped due to a stronger wave, swallowed water, and was rescued by the team and lifeguards. He allegedly responded briefly on the way to the hospital but was declared dead on arrival. Some reports also mentioned conflicting details, including Rahul possibly trying to help his co-star or the pair slipping into a ditch during a dance sequence in shallow water.
Balasore SP Pratyush Diwakar earlier said that the production team neither sought police permission nor informed local authorities before conducting the shoot at the beach near Digha, close to the West Bengal border.
The West Bengal Motion Picture Artists’ Forum also filed a related Zero FIR (or complaint treated as such) in Kolkata, alleging criminal negligence and, in some statements, a “criminal conspiracy” by certain directors, demanding a transparent probe
