Hindi
Bhaji in problem receives record price from distributors in Punjab
NEW DELHI: With ten days to go for the release of the Punjabi comical relief, Bhaji in Problem from Akshay Kumar and Ashvini Yardi’s production house Grazing Goat Pictures, the company has been inundated with huge demands for the rights of the film from across cinemas in Punjab!
Bhaji in Problem stars some of Punjab’s most reputed stars such as Gippy Grewal and Gurpreet Ghuggi who are joined by Sasural Ghenda Phool’s Ragini Khanna and veteran actor Om Puri as central characters.
The film is directed by Smeep Kang who has delivered successful hits such as Carry on Jatta and Lucky Di Unlucky Story.
The film also sees cricketer Harbajan Singh make a friendly appearance in the film. Akshay Kumar who is producing the film with Grazing Goat Pictures Co-producer Ashvini Yardi will feature in an extended role.
Bhaji in Problem is Grazing Goat Picture’s second regional film production after the poignant Marathi film 72 Miles Ek Pravas. The film is being released on 15 November.
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.
