Hindi
‘Masaan’ ticket sales sees spurt with word of mouth publicity
MUMBAI: As has been seen with strong content films, a huge word of mouth buzz pushed Masaan ticket sales to double up by Saturday, 25 July afternoon in all the metros.
The superlative reviews of the film have piqued the interest of cine-goers, which has in turn translated into box office sales.
In spite of facing huge competition from big blockbusters like Bajrangi Bhaijaan and Bahubali, and less number of shows, the film has managed to stand on its own and was playing house full by Saturday noon at most screens in the metros. The small towns though still are warming up to this film, but the producers feel that the Masaan promotions in the small towns will also pay and sales will be stable throughout the week.
The film, which has opened in around 250 screens in the country, is looking stable to go in the second week with more shows.
Drishyam Films’ Manish Mundra said, “Excellent reviews coupled with very strong word of mouth has resulted in full house in all most all major multiplexes in urban centers on Saturday. We are confident that Masaan will sustain in theatres for good number of weeks making it also a success at the box office along with being critical acclaimed.”
Phantom Films’ Vikramaditya Motwane added, “The strong word of mouth and the super reviews have added to the buzz around the film, and the ticket sales have gone up by almost double on Sat. This reinstates our belief in good content and we hope the audience will keep spreading the appreciation and we will have a good weekday tickets’ sales too.”
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.
