Hindi
Pre-Diwali period sees some flops
The pre-Diwali period saw a few flops.
Judwaa2 saved the situation to some extent for the exhibition section providing relief with a considerable number of footfalls for a couple of weeks. Besides this, Newton was in news, a small film which got some favourable box office but more media hype as it was chosen as India’s entry to the Oscars the same day it released.
Sadly, among other failures, the wrong release plan made a yesteryear star out of Saif Ali Khan in a single Friday as his latest release, Chef, went grossly unnoticed.
Besides this, a lot of small films get playtime at the multiplexes during such dull periods and we had films like Daddy, Lucknow Central, Patel Ki Punjabi Shaadi, Bhoomi, Haseena Parkar, Tu Hai Mera Sunday, Ranchi Diaries and such.
Though there is no hyped film releasing this Diwali, the exhibitors can take some comfort in the fact that the small film due for release during the Diwali this year is Aamir Khan’s Secret Superstar which should balance things with the other release, Golmaal Returns. The advantage with Golmaal Returns is that, it is the fourth instalment of the Golmaal series and earlier, two out of three have worked well.
What is also good about Golmaal Returns is its genre is that, it is just the film one would hope to watch during the festive period of Diwali this being a feel good comedy entertainer.
This week: The latest release, Ranchi Diaries, does not amount to anything. The films shows are either cancelled or passed on to Judwaa 2. This is not good enough for the multiplexes, a sort of a compromise, yet, better than screening Ranchi Dairies. This was the last disaster of the wrong period, wrong release.
In the last week release, Saif Ali Khan starrer, Chef is a disaster. Surprised that T Series, having invested more than Rs 250 million in the film, agree to such a compromised release strategy! Rather suicidal.
* Ranchi Diaries finds no audience. Goes unnoticed.
* Chef, the last week’s release, emerges very poor. The film collects just about Rs 51.5 million in its first week.
* Judwaa2 sets a kind of record for the second week as it collects Rs 264 million for its second week to take its two week total to Rs 1.23 million.
* Newton is still holding well in its third week having collected Rs 16 million in its third week and taking its three week total to Rs 175.5 million.
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.
