Hindi
After Deepika-Ranbir-Sonam, it’s time for Madhuri
MUMBAI: The Deepika-Ranbir-Sonam dust is just settling down. Come 30 November and the original Bollywood diva is all set to storm her way back.
After a 5-year hiatus, Madhuri Dixit will woo audiences in her comeback vehicle, the Yash Raj Film (YRF) Aaja Nachle.
A lot is at stake both for the actress and the production house, Barring the successful Chak De, YRF has not done too well in 2007.
As for Madhuri, her last release Devdas did well at the box office but the 5-year gap is a long one and to re-claim lost ground she will have to walk the extra mile.
For Aaja Nachle, she has worked hard at knocking off weight that she had accumulated post motherhood. And the hard work shows. She looks like a million bucks in the hoardings and in the trailers.
The theatrical trailers of the film were launched with Laaga Chunari Mein Daag and the teaser was released as early as with Chak de. Her star power is enormous and this is what the banner will be banking on.
The blogging community is gung-ho about her comeback. Eagerly awaiting the film‘s release most of them write they are positively going to catch the film in a theatre.
Talking about her charisma is her Aaja Nachle co-star Divya Dutta. “Looking at her one never felt she had ever gone away. She is the most talented actor in the industry and when one sees her perform she is just super. I was just watching the promos and she looks fantastic. She may have aged biologically but she looks as gorgeous as ever. We had a great time together – cracking jokes, playing dumb charades. When I watched her perform I didn‘t feel she had been away for 5 years. She is as exuberant as ever.”
Roping in current favourite Vaibhavi Merchant to design the choreography will add a touch of novelty as Madhuri has more than often jived to Saroj Khan‘s dance moves.
Trade pundits predict that the masses will flock to theatres to have a dekko at their one-time-favourite actress. And this is good news for the film.
YRF spokesperson Monika Bhattacharya says, “The response to the promos has been very good right from the teaser stage.”
As her fans await her return, this time around Madhuri may be as anxious as she was with her maiden film. After all she does not want Aaja Nachle to be her swan song.
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.
