Hindi
Paramount Films India showcases film lineup for 2008
BANGALORE: Distributor of Hollywood films Paramount Films of India Ltd (PFIL) announced the lineup of films slated for release in 2008.
The Universal Studio release lineup includes movies such as Definitely, Maybe, which is the story of a daughter who wants her father to be happy; Wanted by the Russian visualist director Timur Bekmambetov of The Night Watch and The Day Watch fame. Wanted tells the story of one invisible drone’s transformation into a dark avenger; Forgetting Sarah Marshall by the makers of 40 Year Old Virgin is another release expected this year.
Mama Mia, a feature film adaption of the musical, is a story of a girl who wants to make her wedding a prefect one by having her father lead her down the aisle. The problem is that her mother is not sure which of the three men she slept with is the real father – Meryl Streep plays the mother and Pierce Brosnan one of the probable fathers. The movie is inter-spiced with popular ABBA songs such as “Mama Mia,” “SOS,” “Dancing Queen,” “Money, Money Money.”
With over 700 VFx shots, Mummy 3 – Tomb of the Dragon Emperor is another release on the cards for 2008. The action shifts to Asia this time, China to be more precise. Brandon Fraser returns as explorer Rick O’Connell to combat the resurrected Han Emperor played by Jet Li, who has been awakened from a 2,000-year old curse and threatens to plunge the world into his merciless, unending service.
In Hellboy II – The Golden Army, the saga of the world’s toughest, kitten-loving hero from Hell continues to unfold. An animated film on, well a heroic mouse – The Tale of Desperaux – is another film on the anvil for a 2008 release.
From the Paramount and Dreamworks stable are Oscar winner No Country for Old Men; a fantasy adventure based on the series of books of the same name comes The Spiderwick Chronicles; Marvel Entertainment’s adaption of Ironman will launch into theaters on 2 May. Owen Wilson stars in (and as) Drillbit Taylor. The movie is slated for release on 21 March. Featuring a Panda who just loves that martial art is Dreamworks animated film Kung Fu Panda.
Dreamworks also brings back all the characters – Alex the lion, Marty the zebra, Melman the giraffe, Gloria the hippo with Madagascar – The Great Escape. An all-new explosive action-packed episode of The Incredible Hulk, will feature Bruce Banner/Hulk struggle to avoid the obsessive pursuit of his nemesis General Ross (William Hurt) and the military machinery that seeks to exploit his power.
On 22 May, Harrison Ford will be back on cinema screens probably for the last time as Indiana Jones in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. The movie also features Cate Blanchett, Karen Allen, Ray Winstone, John Hurt, Jim Broadbent and Shia LeBeouf, who also reteams with Disturba director DJ Caruso in Eagle Eye, also to be relased in 2008.
“Ninety per cent of these films will be released in India. Some of them such as Definitely, Maybe and No Country for Old Men have already been released elsewhere, including in some Asian countries. India is an important market for us,” said Paramount Films Singapore regional director for sales and marketing (Asia) Han Seng Lim, while speaking with indiantelevision.com on the sidelines of the event.
“With globalisation and rising literacy levels, the demand for international cinema is growing,” says PFIL GM Sarabjit Singh.
“The sound and well-heeled urban Indians, especially from the growing mid- and high-income sections, are rediscovering the magic of cinema in plush multiplexes. Also, the increase of multiplexes in A, B & C class centres has helped us to tap wider and newer markets. This has enabled us to release more titles with increased number of prints. The enhanced acceptability of dubbed films in India has widened the mass appeal for Hollywood films,” added Singh.
According to a Paramount release, the Hollywood films market in India is estimated to be around Rs 2 billion. An average of 70 English films, several of them dubbed into regional languages, are released in India every year.
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.
