Hindi
Pyramid Saimira Q3 2008 revenue falls, losses rise
MUMBAI: The Chennai-based cinema and entertainment group Pyramid Saimira Theatre Ltd (PSTL) has posted a net loss of Rs 747.44 million in Q3 ended 31 December, 2008, as compared to a net profit Rs 298.65 million in the same quarter last year. The company has provisioned Rs 763.2 million for the appreciation of value of foreign currency convertible bonds on account of foreign exchange fluctuations which has led to its net profit of Rs 15.7 million being wiped out.
Of late, PSTL has been in the news for the wrong reasons. It had incurred huge losses on movie production (Rs 403.2 million loss on Kuselan); its stock value got a hit and it came under scrutiny over a fake Sebi (Securities and Exchange Board of India) letter and buyback offer; and Punjab National Bank sold off some of the promoter’s pledged shares. Additionally, the buzz in the market was that Sun TV Network was looking to pick up a stake in the company.
A look at the financial results shows that the total income of the company has declined to Rs 1.38 billion from Rs 2.31 billion. Even for the nine-month period ended 31 December, 2008, the company posted a net loss of Rs 525.4 million as against a net profit of Rs 609.86 million in the same period last fiscal.
The company says its business model was to hire screens on the basis of fixed monthly payments preceded by security deposits, running the theatre (all expenses in the book) and taking benefits to the company. But after seeing a fall in the average capacity utilization of screens, average spend per person, less then 10 per cent of success rate of films, and a huge hit with its flop movie, PSTL has been taking a close look at its properties, and renegotiating terms with exisiting partners and signing new deals with them. It said in a release, “The company had to take uncalled for risk on content which was not the original business model.”
But since June 2008, when it had 802 screens, it has been paring them down. Unviable exhibition points have been chopped, while the business model of exhibiting in other screens has been changed to make the exhibition business profitable. By 30 September 2008 it had brought that figure down to 752.
During Q3, it has further reduced the number of screens to 252 where it only functions as an exhibitor (as on 30 December 2008). It dehired 194 screens, brought 151 screens from fixed hire model to case to case content model and brought 148 screens under the revenue share model. It transferred the accounts of these 299 screens under its distribution subsidiary PSEL.
The income from the exhibition business remained static at Rs 986.73 million in Q3 2008, while income from food and beverages was Rs 392.75 million. The total expenses stood at Rs 1.3 billion. The operating profit of the company is Rs 79.7 million (Rs 342.33 million, Q3 2007).
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.
