Hindi
MSM Motion Pictures announces their next venture ‘PIKU’
MUMBAI: MSM Motion Pictures in association with Saraswati Entertainment Creations (SECL) and Shoojit Sircar & Ronnie Lahiri’s Rising Sun Films have announced their next feature film ‘Piku’.
In the lead roles, ‘Piku’ will star Amitabh Bachchan along with Deepika Padukone and Irfan Khan. The first schedule of ‘Piku’ will go on the floors in August 2014. The film is slated to release on 30 April 2015.
MSM Motion Pictures dy president & head Sneha Rajani said, “We at MSM Motion Pictures are endeavoring to create content that engages, evokes & entertains.’Piku’ gives us just that opportunity to co-create engaging and high quality content which we believe will entertain our audience the world over. Working with Mr. Amitabh Bachchan yet again in my new role is an absolute honour. As for Shoojit, I have been an admirer of his work since Yahaan and I am really looking forward to working with him and the delightful ensemble cast which includes the very talented Deepika, Irfan and many others. We are very excited to team up with Saraswati Entertainment Creations Ltd and Rising Sun Films for Piku.”
Added Sircar, “The charisma of Mr. Bachchan, seamless acting of Deepika with the versatile flair of Irfan Khan and the evergreen Moushami Chaterjee will make Piku an experience for me. I am looking forward to this fantastic opportunity of working together with such gifted talent from the industry. We are very happy to partner with MSM Motion Pictures and Saraswati Entertainment Creations Ltd. to bring this wonderful film to the audience, early next year.”
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.
