Kannada actress found dead at film shooting location in Bengaluru

BENGALURU: A

junior artiste

was found dead under suspicious circumstances at a construction site where shooting was underway for a Kannada film in north Bengaluru on Monday evening.

In November, two actors had died while shooting a stunt scene in Bengaluru.

Padma alias Padmavathi, 44, was among the 120 artistes taking part in the shooting of the film, VIP, directed by

Nandakishore

and starring Manoranjan, son of actor V Ravichandran, at the construction site in

Avalahalli

, near Yelahanka.

The 160-member film unit was shooting a dance sequence and after packing for the day, one of the artistes noticed Padma’s absence during a head count, sources said. A search was immediately launched and Padma’s body found on the ground floor of the building around 7.30 pm, they added.

Amit Singh, SP,

Bengaluru Rural district

, said a police team is at the spot and investigating. He confirmed that a woman’s body was found but it was not clear how she had died. He refused to say anything on whehter she had falled from a height.

However, director Nandakishore told the media that the woman was found dead at some other place and not at the place where shooting was underway. Jurisdictional Rajanukunte police were not available for comment.

No other details of the woman could be asceertained. VIP is said to be the remake of Dhanush’s Tamil movie of the same name.

On November 7, two actors, Raghava Uday and Anil Kumar, drowned after they jumped into the Tippagondanahalli reservoir from a helicopter during the shooting of a film, Maastigudi. The hero, Duniya Vijay, who jumped with them survived the jump as he had been provided witha life jacket, which was denied to the two others though they did not know swimming.

The bodies of Anil and Uday were recovered after a massive search a few days later.