Raj Aditya Thampi commits suicide

Telugu film director Raj Aditya Thampi committed suicide at hotel Basera in Secunderabad on Mar 21 Saturday, the day his latest film Malli Malli was scheduled for release. Thirty eight year old Raj Aditya is the son of the prominent Malayalam film producer, director and lyricist Sreekumaran Thampi. No suicide note was found in the room. It is said that the producer was persuading him to re-shoot some of the scenes in the movie Malli Malli, as directed by the distributors.

Raj had checked into the Hotel room ten days ago. He used to go out in the morning and return by evening. As usual he returned to the room on Friday night. An assistant director came along with the driver to the Hotel to pick him up for a film shoot around 9 a.m on Saturday. As there was no response despite repeated knocking at the door, they alerted the Hotel staff who opened the door with a duplicate key, only to see Raj's body hanging from the ceiling fan.

Friday night he had called his father several times. Sreekumaran Thampi said that he was very much upset by the producer's move.

Raj's oringinal name is Rajakumaran Thampi. His first film in Telugu was Ishtam with Shreya as the heroine. Second film was Pourudu with Sumanth as the hero. He was born in Kerala, but grew up in Chennai as his parents were there. He has acted as a child artiste in some Malayalam films like Ammakkorumma, Gaanam, Mohiniyaattam , Enikkumoru Divasam, Irattimadhuram and later worked as assistant to several eminent directors in Bollywood inlcluding Priyadarshan before beginning his career in the Telugu film industry. He is survived by his wife Deepthi and daughter Thanmaya.

Cremation ceremony took place at Basant Nagar electric crematorium in Chennai on Sunday evening. Directors Sasikumar, Hariharan, Sasimohan, Vinayan, music director M.S. Viswanathan, Navodaya Appachan, Actor Asokan, Playback singer Chitra, actress Parvathy, Ambili, dubbing artist Bhagyalakshmi, Kalyani, heroine of Aditya's last film Malli Malli and Tamil film director Vikram were among those who paid homage.

The storyline of his last film Malli Malli sends the message of futility in committing suicide. Instead of that everybody should make the effort to confront life. Through two characters in Malli Malli, Aditya reiterates this message. But alas, the director could not follow the message he transmitted through his film and put an end to his life.