Blast kills 6 people in Iran during film production

Six crew were killed during an explosion in the shooting scene of ‘Me’rajiha’ (Departed to Divinity), the latest production by Iran's blockbuster movie director Massoud Deh-Namaki. FNA reports said an explosive material used for stunt operations blasted and killed the visual effects supervisor of the film, Mohammad Javad Sharifi-Rad and his assistant Mehdi Allah-Yari and 4 other production crew members, including Manager of Defa-e Moqaddas (Holy Defence) Cinema Town Ali Ranjbar, assistant production manager Reza Faraji, a stuntman and a supply man. Also the set and costume designer of the movie, Hamid Shahiri, has sustained severe injuries and was rushed to hospital. In 2002 Dehnamaki started his career as a filmmaker by ‘Poverty and Prostitution’, a documentary on prostitution that traces its roots to the evils of poverty. In 2004 Dehnamaki directed ‘Which Blue, Which Red’. Dehnamaki's debut 2006 feature film ‘Ekhrajiha (The Outcasts)’ set a box-office record in Iran. His most recent film, ‘Ekhrajijha 3’ (‘Outcasts 3’) (2011), is a political comedy. The film turned out to be a box-office success, breaking another record for the most selling film in Iran's history.