Nitin Desai demise: Hansal Mehta recalls 'scary time' when the cycle of debt led him to 'very dark place'

Filmmaker Hansal Mehta is one finest creative minds in the entertainment industry, who gave us memorable films like Omerta, Aligarh, Citylights and others. While these films garnered critical acclaim, they failed to perform at the box office.

Financial pressures in an industry run on emotions can be debilitating. I have faced many a crisis particularly after Omertà and Simran. The failure of the film and the cycle of debt I got into had led me towards a very dark place. The involvement of ‘powerful’ mediators or shall…

— Hansal Mehta (@mehtahansal) August 2, 2023

The filmmaker recently paid tribute to art director Nitin Desai, who passed away Wednesday morning by suicide due to the financial crisis. While paying respect to the late influential personality, Mehta recalled his tough phase and wrote, “Financial pressures in an industry run on emotions can be debilitating. I have faced many a crisis particularly after Omertà and Simran. The failure of the film and the cycle of debt I got into had led me towards a very dark place. The involvement of ‘powerful’ mediators or shall I say coercive forces made things even worse. It was a scary time.”

He added, “I fought the impulse very often in the not so distant past to do something harmful to myself. This was mostly because of the comfort given by family and some true friends who I could talk to. But in times that I Was alone it always felt like a deep, dark and endless tunnel. I wouldn’t have original ideas to share, I wouldn’t have any creative thoughts and I often succumbed to considering myself much inferior to many around me – both as an artist and as a human being. Somehow the faith that this darkness would end and even more by seeking professional help and of course being blessed enough to be immersing myself in work I’ve managed to emerge out of that awful phase.”

Hansal concluded by quoting, “The great Nitin Desai’s tragic passing away and talks of his troubles got me revisiting that time. Am terribly sad at the loss of a remarkable artist. Om Shanti.”