Ace art director Nitin Chandrakant Desai had defaulted over $30 million loan: Reports

Celebrated art director Nitin Chandrakant Desai had reportedly defaulted on an INR 2.5 billion loan. Desai was found dead on Wednesday at his studio in Maharashtra's Raigad district. The award-winning art director had worked in iconic films Lagaan and Devdas during his career spanning over two decades.

According to reports, Desai had defaulted on an INR 2.5 billion loan and a bankruptcy court had admitted an insolvency petition against his company last week.

Desai's company, ND's Art World Pvt Ltd, had borrowed over INR 1.8 billion through two loans from ECL Finance in 2016 and 201. Desai was unable to pay part of the amount from January 2020.

BJP general secretary Vinod Tawde, who was a close friend of Nitin Desai, spoke to Hindustan Times and said, "I used to often speak and counsel him. I had told him on how Amitabh Bachchan had faced immense losses and come back in life again. We had told him that even if the studio was attached due to loans, he could start afresh. It's very sad to hear about his death. I spoke to him the day before."

His company ND's Art World is engaged 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.

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Typically, the insolvency professional is entrusted with ensuring that all the creditors get their dues as per the amounts realised by selling the securities and also has to take care of day-to-day business operations.

The order had said that on March 31, 2021 the account was classified as a non-performing asset (NPA) by the creditors. The the total default amount was ₹252.48 crore (approx 2.5 billion INR) as on June 30, 2022.

In its reply to the court, Desai's company had said that there was a fire incident 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.

Desai was found dead at his ND Studio on Wednesday and while there hasn't been any official confirmation, it is being suspected as a case of suicide.

(With agency inputs)

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