It has been a week since the tragic crane accident that happened at the sets of Shankar’s Indian 2, and the impact has still not reduced a bit. The accident killed three important talents in the team, Sri Krishna (Assistant Director), Madhusudhan (Production Assistant) and Chandran (Art Assistant) and it took the whole industry by shock. Kamal Haasan and Lyca Productions announced financial aid to the families of the deceased. Following that, director Shankar has now officially announced a financial aid of Rs 1 crore to the families of the deceased.

He shared an emotional press statement, in which he sounded completely dejected and low. Shankar’s press statement read, “I still haven’t come out of the shock and it is devastating. Krishna’s death is so disturbing because he joined my team as an AD, just a month back. It is very tough to get a talented AD, but Krishna was very good and he got adapted to such a big project like this, in just a few days. I went to Krishna’s house recently and his mother had uncontrollable tears and those scenes are still flashing in front of me.

Be it any time of the day, whenever I need a coffee, water, biscuit, or anything, production assistant Madhu was always there for me and when I got to hear about his death, I was taken aback. Art assistant Chandran joined the team with his own self-interest and he joined us only for this schedule. Despite taking all the safety measures, it is disheartening to have witnessed a tragic accident like this that happened in a fraction of second. Seeing all the chaos around and the sadness in the faces of the injured and the families of the deceased, I wish the crane could have fallen on me.

My heartfelt condolences to the families of Krishna, Madhusudhan and Chandru. No help will equate the lives of the dead, but, I am going to give a financial aid of Rs 1 crore to the families of the deceased, considering that it might be of some use to them. I sincerely pray to God to give them the strength and courage to get back to normalcy.”