Stuntmen tragedy: Karnataka govt extends Rs 5 lakh relief

The Karnataka government today announced a compensation of Rs five lakh each to the families of the two stuntmen who drowned last week near here during filming of an action sequence for a Kannada film.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah announced the compensation of Rs five lakh each to the families of Anil and Uday, CMO officials said.
The incident occurred on November 7 whenAnil and Uday, along with popular actor Duniya Vijay, were performing a stunt to shoot the climax of "Maastigudi" for which they had to jump from a helicopter into a reservoir, but it went awry.
Their bodies were subsequently fished out after an intense search operation that went on for a couple of days involving the National Disaster Response Force, State Disaster Response Force, Fire department, locals and scuba drivers.

Meanwhile, stunt master Ravi Verma, Director Nagashekar and Assistant Director Subbu yesterday surrendered before the police and were remanded in judicial custody, while producer Sundar P Gowda was already under police arrest.
The film unit has been hit by allegations that it did not take even elementary safety measures, made worse by the rescue boat that remained immobile facing a technical glitch.
Also the stuntmen reportedly did not have the requisite swimming skills.