A quiet Thursday afternoon in Mumbai’s Powai turned tense when screams and frantic gestures from a group of children inside a film studio alerted locals. Within minutes, police had sealed off the area. By evening, 17 children and two adults were rescued, and the man who had held them hostage was dead.

Rohit Arya, a 50-year-old filmmaker and social campaigner, was shot during a rescue operation inside R A Studio after he pointed an airgun at police officers trying to free the hostages. What had begun as a supposed audition for a web series ended as a three-hour standoff and a fatal confrontation.

A film shoot that never was

According to investigators, Arya had invited the children, aged 10 to 12, for what he claimed was an audition for a new show. His long-time videographer, Rohan Aher,

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