Singh, who has acted in 15 Tamil films, has also featured in five Bollywood films, and was chief executive officer of a production company called Balagiri. He was found hanging from a ceiling fan in his flat on the second floor of Windemere Building in the posh Lokhandwala area.

According to the police, Singh's wife Anuradha (28) had left with their two children on Monday to visit her parents in Ahmednagar. Singh was planning to launch a film titled Yogi, and held a meeting regarding discuss the project at his place on Wednesday evening.

“Singh was launching Yogi in partnership with Siddharth Films, owned by Pankaj Bhatia who is a retired army officer like Singh's own father and father-in-law. Bhatia’s daughter Lavina, a trained art director, was to make her debut as a heroine, and was in constant touch with Singh. The shooting was to begin on February 15. On Wednesday evening, five people including Lavina, the film’s script-writer and the costume designer went to discuss the film at Singh's apartment,” said Senior Police Inspector Kiran Sonone of the Oshiwara police station.

“According to Lavina’s statement, the meeting continued till about 9.15 pm, after which Lavina stayed while the other four left Singh's flat. She said that immediately after the meeting was over, she went to the bathroom to freshen up, and that when she came out 15 minutes later, she was shocked to find Singh's body hanging by a bedsheet from a ceiling fan. She then informed her father and neighbours in the building, after which the matter was reported to the police,” said Sonone.

Singh's body was taken to Cooper Hospital for a post-mortem. According to the police, the cause of death has been found to be ligature compression due to strangulation.

The police are now questioning all five persons who attended the Wednesday meeting.

The police said Lavina may not be revealing all that happened. “If Singh wanted to commit suicide, why didn’t he wait till Lavina also left? Also, how could he pull out the bedsheet of a double bed, arrange for a stool, tie the sheet around his neck, and hang himself from a ceiling fan within 15 minutes? We are probing these angles,” said Sonone.