Hindi
Eros, Boundscript Pictures to produce sequel of Aladin
MUMBAI: Eros Pictures, in association with Boundscript Pictures, has announced the plan to make a sequel of Sujoy Ghosh’s yet to be released film, Aladin.
The sequel is slated to go on floors mid next year. The original cast, which had Amitabh Bachchan, Sanjay Dutt and Riteish Deshmukh, is expected to return for the sequel.
Eros‘ announcement comes ahead of Aladin‘s release. The company said it had a look at the first cut of Aladin and was confident that the sequel would work.
“We are very proud of Aladin as it is a 100 per cent Indian product and are very confident of its universal appeal among audiences. I am not worried about the fate of this product at the box office but we will continue to invest our faith in such cinema which can be watched across the globe and Aladin 2 will be a bigger challenge in every aspect as it will be many times more than Aladin 1,” said Eros International MD and chairman Kishore Lulla.
Added Eros International India president Sunil Lulla, “I am confident with Aladin, we have a Hindi film for a global audience. It is going to be a complete family entertainer with universal appeal as there is a little something for everyone – lots of magic and fantasy for the kids along with action adventure and romance for the youth. Adding to that, the film guarantees some of the best and most complex visual effects seen in Indian cinema, hence the sequel will be a bigger challenge with higher expectations.”
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.
