Hindi
Azhar disappoints, Baaghi and Jungle Book going strong
Azhar, the major release of the week, much touted to be a controversial saga of a great cricketer fallen on bad days, found indifferent response from the viewers. Memories are short, and with nothing positive to remind one of Azhar in the era of Kohli, Raina, Rohit , etc and, there was no inclination to make an aggrieved hero out of an alleged suspect.
The film opened to a mediocre response on Friday, remained stagnant even on Saturday and did little on Sunday to show positive signs. The film had an opening weekend of Rs 20.6 crore. The drop from today onwards is inevitable looking at lack of appreciation.
Dear Dad, a father son story, about a father wanting his on the verge of teens to accept his gay status, has failed to find its audience. Kids can’t see the film, elders would not want to watch it and that left little else. The film faced no audience, no show status at many cinemas.
Buddha In A Traffic Jam released after last minute hassles went generally unnoticed. The theme of the film has no relevance in the scheme of things when it comes to cinema.
Traffic, a film about a celebrity father buying a heart for transplant into his ailing daughter, is not accepted by Hindi audiences despite its success in the original Malayalam and other versions. More than a humane tale, it emerged as the depiction of money, might and clout. The film failed to touch the chord and collected barely Rs 3.2 crore in its first week.
1920 London is the only film from the films released last week which made a mark, though to a limited extent. This horror drama with the credibility of Sharman Joshi riding on it, did decent business at the box office and collected Rs 12.1 crore.
Sunny Leone and her sex appeal are at a stage of negative returns. One Night Stand, despite a suggestive title and Sunny Leone in the lead, failed to arouse curiosity. The film remained poor in its first week managing to garner together a bare Rs 3.15 crore.
Baaghi was excellent in its second week as this mass appeal film went on to collect Rs 11.8 crore in its second week taking its two week total to Rs 71.4 crore.
Jungle Book collected Rs 6.25 crore in its fifth week with its five week being Rs 175.15 crore.
Hindi
Remembering Gyan Sahay, the lens behind film, television and advertising
From a puppet rabbit selling poppadums to Hindi cinema, he framed it all.
MUMBAI: There are careers, and then there are canvases. Gyan Sahay, the veteran cinematographer, director, and producer who passed away on 10 March 2026 in Mumbai, had one of the latter. Over several decades in the Indian film and television industry, he turned lenses, lights, and the occasional puppet rabbit into something approaching art.
A graduate of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) in Pune, Sahay built his reputation as a director of photography across a career that stretched from the early 1970s all the way to the digital age. He was the kind of craftsman who understood that a well-composed shot is not merely a technical achievement but a quiet act of storytelling.
For most Indians of a certain age, however, Sahay will forever be the man behind the rabbit. His direction of the iconic long-running television commercial for Lijjat Papad, featuring its now-legendary puppet bunny, gave the country one of its most cheerfully persistent advertising images. It was the sort of work that sneaks into the national subconscious and takes up permanent residence.
His big-screen credits as cinematographer include Anokhi Pehchan (1972), Pagli (1974), Pas de Deux (1981), and Hum Farishte Nahin (1988). In 1999, he stepped behind a different kind of camera altogether, making his directorial debut with Sar Ankhon Par, a drama that featured Vikas Bhalla and Shruti Ulfat, with a cameo by Shah Rukh Khan for good measure.
On television, Sahay was particularly prized for his command of multi-camera production setups, a skill that made him a go-to technician for large-scale shows and reality programmes. In an industry that has never been especially patient with complexity, he was the calm hand on the rig.
In later life, Sahay turned teacher. He participated regularly in masterclasses and Digi-Talks, often hosted by organisations such as Bharatiya Chitra Sadhna, sharing hard-won wisdom on cinematography, the comedy of timing in a shot, and the sweeping changes brought by the shift from celluloid to digital. He was also said to have been involved in a project concerning a biographical film on Infosys co-founder N.R. Narayana Murthy.
Tributes from the film industry poured in following the news of his passing, with colleagues remembering him as a senior cameraman who served as a rare bridge between two entirely different eras of Indian cinema. That is, perhaps, the finest thing one can say of any craftsman: he kept up, and he brought others along with him.
