Hindi
Rise of the Planet of the Apes grosses Rs 116 mn in two weeks
MUMBAI: Fox Star Studios‘ latest sci-fi extravaganza Rise of the Planet of the Apes has grossed Rs 116 million in two weeks of release.
The James Franco-Freida Pinto starrer released in English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu, first in single screens and then in select multiplexes like PVR Cinemas.
Touted as one of the most entertaining films of the franchise, the film is also a hit with the Hindi speaking audiences across India with collections from the Hindi screens almost matching those from the English screens.
Fox Star Studios India CEO Vijay Singh said, “We are elated with the continuing enthusiastic response to the film from centres across India. Despite the delayed release the collections from the PVR cinemas are very encouraging – four of the PVR properties feature among the top 10 performing properties for the film. Given the positive word-of-mouth, we are confident of increasing the figures in the weeks to come.”
Directed by Rupert Wyatt, Rise of The Planet of the Apes is the seventh in the Apes saga and has gathered a lot of Oscar buzz for its spectacular special effects by Oscar winning agency Weta Digital and also Andy Serkis‘ performance as Caesar, the ape for the film.
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.
