Hindi
Rentrak ties up with MRSS for box office data from India
MUMBAI: US-based Rentrak Corporation, a leading multi-screen media measurement agency serving the advertising, television and movie industries, has collaborated with independent marketing research firm Majestic Market Research for the collection of movie box office grosses in India.
Under terms of the agreement, Rentrak‘s International Box Office Essentials will be using Indian box office data sourced by Majestic MRSS. Rentrak will be using Majestic‘s local expertise to help expand its reach in the region.
“India is a huge box office market and one where studio returns are steadily increasing. In order to effectively conduct business in the global theatrical industry, clients want visibility into our region,” said Majestic Market Research Co-Founder & President (Global) Raj Sharma.
“As Rentrak continues to grow international coverage, which now includes the operation and collection of theatre-level attendance and box office information from 36 countries, the inclusion of one of the world‘s top box office markets to the International Box Office Essentials service is a powerful addition for our clients. Rentrak is thrilled to now be supporting India‘s famed film production heritage with our global box office reporting capabilities,” said Rentrak‘s Theatrical Worldwide President Ron Giambra.
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.
