Hindi
Film Distributors’ associations to appeal in SC against CCI ruling
MUMBAI: Seven distributor associations across India who were, in an order of the Competition Commission Of India (CCI), told to pay a penalty of 10 per cent of their annual income against following alleged unfair laws, have decided to file an appeal in the Supreme Court against the ruling.
It was last Saturday when the CCI gave its judgement asking these associations to co-operate with production houses like Reliance Entertainment, UTV Motion Pictures, Eros International and Shree Ashtavinayak Cinevision.
Besides, it has also ordered that associations can no longer compel anyone to become their member as a pre-condition for the exhibition of the film in territories under their control and can‘t discriminate between regional and non-regional movies with an undertaking that they won‘t restrict the number of screens for any film.
The associations are the Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce (KFCC), Central Circuit Cine Association (CCCA), Bihar and Jharkhand Motion Pictures Association (BJMPA), and two others.
As a fall out of the order, other distributor associations that would be affected are Eastern India Motion Picture Association (EIMPA), Hyderabad State Film Chamber of Commerce, Northern India Motion Pictures Association, Indian Motion Pictures Distributors Association, Orissa Film Distributors Syndicate and The Chennai Kanchipuram Thiruvallur District Films Distributors Association.
The legal dispute started after Rakesh Roshan‘s Kites, distributed by Reliance, was not allowed to play in 50-60 screens due to a KFCC diktat. Later, other corporates like UTV and Eros, who were penalised by Rs 500,000 for not agreeing to the associations‘ timeline for satellite screening and home video release of their films like Kurbaan and Housefull, also joined in.
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.
