Hindi
Box Office: ‘Bangistan’ bombs; ‘Bajrangi Bhaijaan’ crosses Rs 300 crore
MUMBAI: Coming from a production house, which is known to churn out quality films, Bangistan fails to deliver. Produced by Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani’s Excel Entertainment, the movie was expected to be a commercial entertainer. However, Bangistan, inspired from a British film Four Lions – about four waylaid terrorists, is an utterly senseless film exhibiting total lack of the film medium. The film managed to put together just about Rs 1 crore on its opening Friday and despite expected improvement over Saturday and Sunday, the first weekend collections stand at a measly Rs 3.35 crore.
On the other hand, Jaanisar, was marketed as ‘From the maker of Umrao Jaan’ and to his credit, Muzaffar Ali did make Umrao Jaan and Gaman, two hugely appreciated films. However, his latest lacks the purpose and the human interest story that his previous two films had. This film lacks identification for any kind of audience, as a result of which, meets with a disastrous fate at the box office: no takers.
Ajay Devgn’s experiment with a family thriller sans action, Drishyam, does not quite work despite all three of its previous versions in Malayalam (original), Telugu and Tamil remakes making their mark at the box office as well as with critics. While critics stayed divided over handing out stars in ratings to the film, ticket buyers remained mostly indifferent. Except Devgn, that too not the way his fans like to see him, the rest came as a patch up job. You make an economical film but admission rates remain the same at the cinema halls and audiences expect their money’s worth. After an opening weekend of Rs 27.6 crore including collections from paid previews on Thursday before regular release, the film ended its first week with Rs 41.3 crore.
Masaan could muster praise from the critics as well as few who paid to watch it but not enough to register at the box office. It added Rs 1.05 crore to its first week figures taking its two-week total to Rs 3.45 crore.
Bajrangi Bhaijaan still holds sway over the audience also getting some repeat footfalls as it collects over Rs 29.4 crore in its third week. This takes the film’s three-week tally to Rs 301.45 crore.
Bahubali: The Beginning (Hindi- Dubbed) continues to do well during its fourth week. The film has added Rs 10.9 crore to take its four-week tally to Rs 98.85 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.
