Marathi filmmaker and producer, Atul B Tapkir, was found dead at a hotel room in Pune on Sunday morning. He was 35 years old. A case of accidental death has been registered by the Deccan Gymkhana Police Station, and the body has been sent for an autopsy, a police official told IANS. Tapkir had been staying in a hotel in Karve Road for the past two days. The hotel staff summoned the police after he did not respond to calls.
Tapkir had posted a suicide note on his Facebook account in the wee hours of Sunday morning, explaining why he wanted to kill himself and what depressed him. His post suggested he was depressed over the financial losses he suffered by producing Marathi film, Dhol Taashe which released in 2015. He also claimed that while his father and sisters backed him, his wife, Priyanka, allegedly harassed him, throwing him out of the house and forcing him to live out of the house for six months.
He was also upset about being kept away from their children, and constantly taunted and spoken ill of to friends and neighbours.
Written in Marathi, his post also added that his wife’s “brothers” threatened and beat him up. He had called her a few days ago to abuse her, when she had abused him and his family in return and lodged a police complaint against them. Tapkir added that there’s a pen drive that substantiates the incident of his wife’s brother hurling abuses at him.
The full FB post:
His post also urged Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to “listen to a man’s side of the story too when a woman lodges a complaint”. He also expressed his last wish, that his children be raised by his father and not his wife.
Pic: Indian Express
