Veteran photographer Jagdish Aurangabadkar commits suicide

Veteran film photographer Jagdish Aurangabadkar committed suicide earlier today.

Aurangabadkar, who was in his sixties, was found dead in his Goregaon (East) residence in Mumbai. A suicide note was recovered from the site along with an organ donation letter. According to the police, Aurangabadkar committed suicide between 10:30 am and 12:30 pm.

Aurangabadkar’s body was discovered by a tiffin delivery boy at 12:30 pm. Getting no response on ringing the doorbell, the delivery boy found the door ajar, and the photographer hanging from the ceiling in the balcony, which had been converted into a room with sliding windows. Aurangabadkar’s body was taken to the Balasaheb Thackeray trauma care centre in Jogeshwari (East) for a post-mortem examination. 

“I’m shocked to hear of Jagdishji’s demise," said film photographer and Shutterbugs Images partner Amol Narayan Kamble. "I’d visited him 4-5 years ago. His wife was not keeping well then. He was a jovial person, I’m stunned how someone like him committed suicide."

According to Kamble, Aurangabadkar had problems with his legs, and was out of action for more than a year. "I remember he’d collected thousands of pictures," Kamble said. "He had shared with us the stills in which he played a hangman in Amitabh Bachchan’s Pukar."

A veteran film journalist, who did not want to be named, said, "Jagdish had undergone a knee operation a year ago. Perhaps it wasn’t successful and so he couldn’t step out in the field again. He had personal issues too and so lived alone. As always, he sent us a good morning message but a couple of hours later, we received this tragic news.”

The funeral was held on Thursday evening at the Oshiwara crematorium in Jogeshwari (West). Aurangabadkar is survived by his wife and two children.