Satish Kaushik narrowly escapes death from Itanagar violence

Recently, Bollywood actor-director narrowly escaped death after the five theaters he's affiliated with were torched in the protests against the government's latest move to grant permanent residency certificates (PRCs) to non-Arunachal Scheduled Tribes in Arunachal Pradesh capital Itanagar on Friday night.

During a media interaction, Satish said, "I am associated with five theatres named Picture Time. I am a promoter. I got a call this (Saturday) morning from the owner, Sushil Choudhary, that our five theatres were burnt."

Satish along with producer Rony Lahiri, award-winning filmmaker Utpal Borpujari, Manju Barua and Smaujjal Kashyap were all stuck in a hotel for hours after the first Itanagar International Film Festival was canceled following the eruption of violence.

The actor said, "I reached yesterday (Friday) and went to the hotel. I was supposed to get ready for the evening function... But they (organizers) said 'hold on' there is some problem ... The event could not take place due to protests. The protesters were on a rampage and pelting stones. We couldn't make it to the convention center. There was a fire. We got stuck. We thought we'd leave in the morning but we got stuck.

"We crossed the border with the help of an IAS officer. He sent people and about 10-12 vehicles for us. Then we crossed the (Arunachal Pradesh) border," the actor added.