Hindi
Online buzz predicts movie box office sales
MUMBAI: The more a film is blogged about before its release, the higher gross box office sales are likely to be in the US. As many as 10 weeks prior to release, films that eventually grossed $100 million in sales received eight times the buzz of films grossing smaller amounts.
This information is contained in the first edition of Nielsen PreView in the US. This is a B2B research service providing its members unique business and marketing insights.
Nielsen PreView will draw upon Nielsen‘s marketing and media information sources, including informational databases and industry experts, to create original, multidisciplinary studies that address the most pressing research interests and concerns voiced by members on PreView‘s website, www.nielsenpreview.com.
Nielsen will present the details of the first PreView member report at the ShoWest motion picture industry convention in Las Vegas, Nevada, on 13 March. With a focus on the entertainment industry, the study modelled and analysed box office results for 400 recent movies along with related data from Nielsen‘s online, entertainment and media units, and found box office success may be directly linked to pre-release online buzz.
Nielsen PreView SVP Ann Marie Dumais says, “The reports and studies from Nielsen PreView demonstrate the power of the Nielsen service offerings – our world-class, integrated panels and data assets, coupled with our analytical and market intelligence capabilities – to an extended, broader spectrum of clients across all industries.
“Nielsen‘s reputation of quality and substance combined with membership feedback make for a powerful and unique partnership. By building a membership based upon common needs, as opposed to job function or affiliation, Nielsen will be able to more efficiently understand, address and deliver unique business intelligence.”
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.
