Hindi
Release of films in multiplexes to be stopped till final decision on profit sharing
MUMBAI: No films will be released in multiplexes after the release of ‘Delhi 6’ as multiplex owners are demanding imbalanced and unfair shares in the profit of a movie, following a decision to this effect by the Film Producers’ Guild of India which represents the Indian entertainment industry.
Puja Films Chairman and senior filmmaker Vashu Bhagnani said: “The movies will release in multiplexes only after the settlement with the multiplex owners. They keep demanding an increased percentage of profit in films despite the increase in production cost and the global recession effect on entertainment industry”
He told indiantelevision.com in a telephonic interview that the entertainment industry was expected to grow at just 7% as compared to 12.3% last year, but multiplex owners still demanded more. “This is incorrect, so we will first settle the profit sharing and only then release any film in the multiplexes,” he said.
Reiterating that this was a decision of filmmakers all over the country and not merely of the Guild which is headed by Mukesh Bhatt, he said films for which advance publicity had been done including ‘Delhi 6’ will be released as slated.
He said he had therefore decided to postpone the release of his film “Kal Kissne Dekha” introducing his son Jackky Bhagnani with Manmohan Desai’s grand-daughter Vaishali Desai along with Rishi Kapoor, and directed by Vivek Sharma, which was slated for release on 24 April.
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.
