Hours of fear in the studio of dreams

Rohit Arya

# Special Correspondent

Mumbai | On a quiet Thursday afternoon, RA Studio in Powai, usually buzzing with young dreamers chasing Bollywood stardom, became the stage for an unexpected drama. Seventeen children and two adults, lured by the promise of a web-series audition, found themselves hostages instead. Yet this was no act of terror or crime, but the desperate performance of a creator undone by a Rs 2-crore government arrears and the silence that met his art.

Despair turns deadly

Rohith Arya, a noted social entrepreneur and project consultant from Maharashtra, had worked on government initiatives like Swachhta Monitor and Maazi Shala, Sundar Shala (“My School, Beautiful School”). Yet, he lamented that his ideas brought neither recognition nor reward. Disillusioned, Rohith staged repeated protests, even hunger strikes, against former Education Minister Deepak Kesarkar and other officials, seeking justice for his unacknowledged work.

“Instead of committing suicide, I devised a plan.” In a video shared after the siege, Rohith Arya spoke with cold resolve: it was not money he sought but a rare chance to pose “moral and ethical” questions to certain people. He warned that any misstep would have dire consequences - a final, terrible ultimatum wrapped in a plea for being heard.

Rohith’s state of mind mirrored his deep despair. An artist and social worker by calling, he resorted to holding 17 students hostage, a tragic gesture that revealed how crushing the weight of official indifference can become when passion meets an unyielding system.

Horrifying hours

Panic erupted outside the studio around 1:45 pm with anxious parents having an unusually long wait for their children. On enquiries with security,  word spread that Rohith had taken them hostage, the streets of Powai filled with cries and the wail of sirens. Within moments, police convoys, the Quick Response Team, the bomb squad, and firefighters converged, turning the quiet lane into a field of flashing lights and fear.

Rohith Arya had rigged the studio doors with sensors, blocking every police attempt to break in. Through the glass, the sight of terrified children huddled together and their cries pierced the crowd outside, deepening the agony of parents. For over two tense hours, negotiators pleaded in vain; Rohith refused to yield.

A Waghmare bullet ended it all

When it became clear that the children’s lives were in danger, the police made their move. With the fire department’s aid, officers slipped into the studio through a narrow duct and a bathroom vent. The moment the police breached the studio, Rohith Arya opened fire with his air gun. In the chaos that followed, Anti-Terrorism Squad officer Amol Waghmare took aim and fired a single shot to the chest. Rohith fell instantly and the siege came to its end.
The operation lasted only 35 minutes and ended in what officials called a “successful” rescue. Seventeen children and two adults were safely evacuated, examined at a hospital and soon reunited with their families. Rohith Arya was also taken to the hospital, but was declared brought dead.

Questions linger

Was it a Rs 2-crore debt or the sting of unrecognized work that drove Rohith Arya to such an extreme? Though he wielded only an air gun, Police Commissioner Devan Bharati defended the officers’ response, stating that opening fire was the sole way to guarantee the children’s safety. After three harrowing hours that shook Mumbai, the children returned home safely; but unsettling questions remain. They linger as a quiet indictment of a system that pushed a man, convinced of being denied justice, towards desperate measures in search of a solution.