Bollywood director charged with killing assistant

An Indian film director faces a ten-year prison sentence after being charged with the culpable homicide of his British assistant, who was hit by a train while filming last week.

Nadia Khan, a 26-year-old film and media graduate from North London University, was shooting for Kaizad Gustad’s film Mumbai Central when a train struck her down in Bombay on May 25.

Prosecutors said 11 crew members were ordered by Gustad to claim to police and hospital authorities that Khan, from Newbury Park, East London, died in a road accident.

“One crew member listened to his conscience and confessed to the police the next day,” said Bombay public prosecutor PN Rane. “That is why Gustad later came to the police.”

Rane said police needed time to investigate why Khan was standing on a railway track where the crew had no permission to shoot, instead of a less-frequented track for which they had a permit.

Police earlier charged Gustad and Ashish Udeshi, an assistant director, with filing a false police complaint, suppressing information, fabricating evidence and negligence during the shooting of the film. The charges carry a maximum three-year prison sentence.

Magistrate Usha Iyer today refused bail and directed police to add the more serious charge of culpable homicide against them.

Iyer ordered Gustad to remain in police custody for interrogation until a June 10 court hearing.

Gustad said yesterday that he welcomed the investigation, and said he and his crew voluntarily went to the police.

Judge Iyer asked the police: “It is known that a running train can knock down a person, causing death. When the director had this knowledge, why did he allow Nadia to go on the track?”

Khan’s father Mohammad Mazir Khan said in London today that the family planned to sue Gustad for negligence.

“He shouldn’t do this to anybody else again,” said Khan, 65, a retired businessman. He said when Gustad came to London with the body of his youngest of four daughters, he ”lied to us repeatedly".

"He first said she was run over by a car, then a truck.”

After the burial, he told the family she had been hit by a train, Mazir Khan said.

Gustad, 36, is an up-and-coming Bollywood director, having made three films since 1995.

Bollywood movies are notorious for poor safety standards with accidents common on film sets. Film crews are rarely insured.