Hindi
NFDC’s classic Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro to re-release on 2 November
MUMBAI: NFDC Cinemas of India in association with PVR Director‘s Rare will re-release the digitally restored version of Kundan Shah‘s film on 2 November exclusively across PVR Cinemas in 11 cities including Mumbai, Pune, Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata, Chandigarh, Vadodara, Ahmedabad, Surat, and Gurgaon. The film will be released in 2K projection.
A dark satire on the rampant corruption in Indian politics, bureaucracy, news media and business, the film comprises an ensemble cast of Naseeruddin Shah, Ravi Baswani, Om Puri, Pankaj Kapur, Satish Shah, Bhakti Barve and Neena Gupta. Released in 1983, the film resonated very well with the audineces for its superb satirical depiction of the essential, timeless, human condition, supreme self-interest and some moral/ethical anchor.
Speaking on this occasion, NFDC Managing Director Nina Lath Gupta said, “We are glad to re-release the digitally restored version of an old time classic like Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro! We discussed our intent to re-release the film with Kundan Shah at the time of the film‘s DVD launch, fully knowing its potential for a theatrical release, and are confident that the younger audineces of today who are yet to see the film will love the plot and the charaters. The film will release under the PVR Director‘s Rare banner, fitting perfectly with the nature of the initiative taken by PVR.”
Averred PVR Ltd. JMD Sanjeev Kumar Bijli, “We are completely thrilled to bring to the movie connoisseurs one of the most epic movie of the 80‘s and is confident to receive a positive response from the audience. Re-releasing a digitally restored version of an old classic is a novel initiative taken by PVR Director‘s Rare with NFDC. As a multiplex chain we are wholly committed to bring to our discerning audience a cinema that is amazingly entertaining, meaningful and engaging.”
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.
