The three-hour stand-off on Thursday in which a man, Rohit Arya, held 17 children and two persons hostage in Mumbai’s Powai has eerie similarities to a 2022 Hindi film.

A Thursday, featuring actress Yami Gautam whose character kidnaps 16 children and two persons at a school, was also based in Mumbai. The name of the film reflects that day the kidnapping happens in the movie, a Thursday.

In the film, Gautam plays a school teacher named Naina, whose school is located opposite her residence.

Parents drop off their children at the school and Naina asks a parent to send over a cake for their daughter’s birthday celebration. The driver who delivers the cake is also taken hostage, along with a helper who returns to the school to look for her mobile phone.

Naina calls the police and tells them that she has taken 16 children hostage.

Rohit Arya, who was at the centre of the hostage crisis shot in Mumbai on Thursday, had contacted parents from various locations under the pretext of conducting an audition.

One family said that Arya had told them that the audition at Ra Studio in Powai’s Mahavir Classik building would last for three days. Arya allegedly locked the children inside along with two adults.

He then released a video saying that his demands were “simple and moral and ethical”.

“I am not a terrorist and do not have any monetary demands, and my demands are not immoral at all,” he said in the video.

Arya had received a government contract to carry out the Swachhata Monitor cleanliness drives at schools and claimed that he wanted to be paid Rs 2 crore that the Maharashtra education department owed him, reported Hindustan Times.

He said he wanted to discuss these with “certain people”, but did not name anyone specific.

In A Thursday, Naina demands to speak with the prime minister, the character played by Dimple Kapadia.

But the similarities between the real-life crisis and the film end here. After negotiations with Arya failed, the police entered the studio and shot him dead when he pointed his air gun at the hostages.

In the movie, directed by Behzad Khambata and released on Disney Hotstar in 2022, the police first try to negotiate with Naina but she is later arrested.

The incident

On Thursday, Datta Nalawade, the deputy commissioner of police, told PTI that the police had received a call at about 1.45 pm about a man holding the children hostage inside the studio.

He said that police officers, along with personnel from the quick response team, bomb detection and disposal squad and the fire brigade, arrived at the site soon after.

Nalawade said that the police attempted to negotiate with Arya, PTI reported.

However, when the talks made no headway, a police team entered the studio through the bathroom, the officer said.

Arya threatened to use an explosive chemical and pointed an air gun at the hostages. That is when Assistant Sub-Inspector Ashok Waghmare shot Arya, reported NDTV. Arya was taken to the Jogeshwari trauma hospital with a chest injury and was declared dead.

Education department’s dues

Arya was an activist and worked in the education sector. He was the project director for Project Let’s Change Swachhata Monitor and worked with the Maharashtra government on cleanliness drives in schools.

In 2024, he held a hunger strike in Pune because he alleged that his dues had not been paid, reported The Indian Express.

Former state Education Minister Deepak Kesarkar said he had personally given Arya a cheque.

The education department claimed that Arya’s dues were pending because his paperwork and documentation was not in order.

Also read: ‘A Thursday’ review: Vigilante thriller fires over the tiny shoulders of children

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