Youth who immolated himself for “salvation” after watching movie dies

A youth who had immolated himself for “salvation” as depicted in Telugu horror movie ‘Arundhati’ succumbed to his burns at a government hospital here.

Family sources said 23-year-old Renuka Prasad, a Class 12 dropout from a village in Madhugiri taluk of Tumakuru district, had watched the film about two dozen times.

His parents often asked him to refrain from doing so but he never heeded to their advice.

“Just as the central character of the movie got salvation after immolation, Prasad too tried the same act by pouring about 20 litres of petrol on his body on the village outskirts,” sources said.

Some passersby who saw him being engulfed in flames rushed him to the nearby hospital.

He was later taken to the Victoria Hospital here where he succumbed to his injuries on Wednesday.

Prasad also allegedly made a video telling his father that he would get “salvation” after immolating himself.