Dancer shooting for Riteish Deshmukh’s film drowns in river in Satara

A 26-year-old dancer, who was part of the choreography team of actor- director Riteish Deshmukh’s movie ‘Raja Shivaji’, drowned in the Krishna river in Maharashtra’s Satara district just after finishing the shooting of a song, police said on Thursday.

The deceased dancer was identified as Saurabh Sharma, whose body was found on Thursday morning, two days after he went missing, an official said.

The incident occurred on Tuesday evening at Sangam Mahuli, a village located at the confluence of the rivers Krishna and Venna in Satara district, around 250km from Mumbai, where the shooting of ‘Raja Shivaji’ was going on, he said.

After finishing the shooting of a song in which colours were thrown around, Sharma went to wash his hands in the Krishna river. After washing his hands, he entered deep into the river for a swim, but got swept away by strong water currents, he said.

Police and district administration were alerted about the missing dancer, following which disaster response and rescue teams, including members from local private organisations, rushed to the spot and launched a search operation.

The search and rescue operation was stopped on Tuesday night due to darkness and it resumed on Wednesday morning and went on for the entire day, but the dancer could not be traced, said the official.

Sharma’s body was finally recovered from the river by police and rescue teams on Thursday at around 7.30 am, he said.

An accidental death case has been registered with the Satara police and further probe was underway, the official added.

‘Raja Shivaji’, a bilingual Marathi and Hindi film based on the life of legendary Maratha warrior Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, is being directed by actor Riteish Deshmukh, who is also playing the lead role in the movie.