The two wheeler vehicle, the Silence and the DNA Test: The Tragic Final Story of Filmmaker Mahesh Jirawala
Ahmedabad’s devastating Air India AI-171 crash on June 12, 2025, claimed 260 lives and left behind countless shattered families. Among those killed was 34-year-old Gujarati filmmaker Mahesh Jirawala, a man whose death would leave his loved ones trapped in nine days of agonising uncertainty before finally learning the truth. Mahesh Jirawala’s story is about how cruel fate could be. He was not in the Air India flight AI 171 that crashed in Ahmedabad but still he became a plane crash victim.
Unlike the passengers aboard the London-bound Boeing 787 Dreamliner, Mahesh was on the ground when disaster struck. That afternoon, Mahesh was returning home on his scooter after a meeting. Shortly after take-off from Ahmedabad airport, Air India Flight AI-171 lost altitude and crashed into the BJ Medical College hostel complex in Meghaninagar, erupting into a massive fireball. The impact and subsequent blaze killed passengers, crew members and several people on the ground.
Mahesh happened to be passing through the area at that very moment. He became one of the ground victims of one of India’s deadliest aviation disasters. But his family did not know that. When Mahesh failed to return home, panic quickly replaced concern as night descended. His mobile phone became unreachable. Repeated calls went unanswered. As television channels flashed images of the burning wreckage, relatives desperately hoped he had survived and had been admitted to a hospital. His family did not know where he was gong for the meeting and the route he was going to take. However, when his calls went unanswered and as the family knew that the B J Medical college often came on the route when they went to other areas, their suspicion turned to fear.
Still they kept hoping. And they started searching him. When they could not find him, they started looking at hospitals.
Days passed without answers. Investigators later informed the family that Mahesh’s scooter had been found near the crash zone. His last mobile phone location had also been recorded close to the disaster site. CCTV footage subsequently established that he had indeed travelled through that route shortly before the aircraft crashed.
Even then, certainty remained elusive. The intensity of the inferno had left many victims burnt beyond recognition, making visual identification impossible. Authorities therefore relied on DNA testing to identify victims. Mahesh’s family submitted DNA samples and began an agonising wait.
For nine days, they lived between hope and despair. Every phone call brought the possibility of news. Every passing hour deepened the fear that the worst had happened. They thought he would be alive when they found out that one passenger, who was on board of the Air India flight had also walked out of the wreckage with almost no injuries and was alive. If a plane crash victim could be alive, why couldn’t their son who was not even in the plane?, the mother kept asking.
Finally, on June 21, nine days after the crash, forensic experts confirmed a DNA match. The unidentified remains recovered from the crash site belonged to Mahesh Jirawala. Police also matched the engine and chassis numbers of a burnt scooter recovered near the site with Mahesh’s vehicle, leaving no room for doubt.
The confirmation ended the family’s desperate search but marked the beginning of an even deeper grief. The tragedy was especially cruel because Mahesh had spent his final months trying to secure his family’s future. Just two weeks before the crash, his father, Girdharbhai Kalawadia, had suffered a massive heart attack. A diamond worker by profession, he was no longer able to continue working after surgery. Concerned about his parents’ wellbeing, Mahesh repeatedly assured his father that he would take care of everything.
“He told me not to worry. He said he would clear all our debts and buy a house for the family before Diwali,” Girdharbhai would later recall.
At the time, the family was living in a rented home in Ahmedabad’s Naroda area and was burdened with debts of nearly ₹15 lakh. Mahesh never got the opportunity to fulfil that promise himself.
Following the disaster, the family received a total compensation package of approximately Rs 1.29 crores from Air India, the Tata Group and the Gujarat government. According to the family, Mahesh’s wife received ₹54 lakh and later moved to her parental home. From the remaining compensation amount, the family first cleared debts worth around ₹15 lakh.
Girdharbhai then purchased a modest two-bedroom flat in Naroda for about ₹45 lakh. Another ₹10 lakh was spent on furnishing the home, while ₹5 lakh was set aside for the family’s young granddaughter.
Today, nearly a year after the tragedy, Girdharbhai lives in that flat with his wife, younger son Kartik and granddaughter. The apartment stands as a painful symbol of both loss and fulfilment. The son who had promised to buy his parents a home never got the chance to hand over the keys. Yet through the compensation that followed his death, his dream became reality.
“Mahesh always told me not to worry. Today, because of him, we are living in our own home. My son fulfilled his promise even after his death,” Girdharbhai said. Even now, the grieving father admits that every evening he still feels his son will walk through the door.
The Ahmedabad air crash took away a filmmaker, a son and a family’s primary support. But for those he left behind, Mahesh Jirawala’s enduring legacy is not merely the music videos and albums he created. It is the dignity, security and hope he managed to provide his family—even after his final journey ended in one of India’s worst aviation tragedies.
(All pictures are from late Mahesh Jirawala’s social media accounts or those provided by his family and friends.)
Also Read: Ahmedabad Air India Crash: One Year Later Final Cause May Still Remain Unclear https://www.vibesofindia.com/ahmedabad-air-india-crash-one-year-later-final-cause-may-still-remain-unclear/
