Hindi
Film entertainment overcame many hurdles, not this time
From the beginning of the Ganesh festival till Diwali, is generally considered a dull period. Even if one discounts the belief that the Shraddha period of 15 days post-Ganesh festival is considered inauspicious for releasing a new film as well as taking up any new venture and so, movie going is the last priority.
Film entertainment has overcome many hurdles like the introduction of television in India, telecast of films and film based programmes, colour television, video player, CD and DVD, the cricket cups and the IPL. However, it has not been able to overcome this slot of poor run for films.
Why this misadventure then of not waiting out a couple of weeks for an opportune period for release? Especially, in the case of Poster Boys, which happens to be the debut film for actor turned director, Shreyas Talpade. Also, in consideration was the fact that the film’s performance could have meant a breather for the brothers, Sunny and Bobby Deol, whose careers are in limbo for some time now.
*Poster Boys, a comedy with rural background, has a kind of old-fashioned touch to it. A remake of the Marathi film, Poshter Boyz, it had gone well with the Marathi audience. But, the cast in the theme limited the film’s business prospects to mainly Hindi belt, leaving out Maharshtra and most of South.
The film managed poor opening response with the first day figures remaining low at Rs 17 million with Saturday showing only a marginal increase. On Sunday, the film was at its best yet, not good enough at about Rs 30 million as the film managed to collect barely Rs 71 million for its opening weekend.
*Daddy, a film about the local Mumbai don, Arun Gawli, had some curiosity value mainly because of Arjun Rampal essaying the role of the gangster.
While, it has been proved that films on dons don’t work be they from Mumbai, UP or Bihar, the film’s drawback was that even in Mumbai, Gawli’s reign was limited to a pocket of Mumbai, this kind of dons existed in just about every area in Mumbai and they were called Dada. If anything that made Gawli come to limelight, it was his enmity with the bigger dons.
An earlier film on Gwali, Dagdi Chwal, was made in Marathi language and had been dubbed in Hindi. While the original Marathi version did well, the dubbed version failed. Daddy has got the opening that was expected, poor, and just about managed to cross Rs 10 million figure on its day one with a negligible increase on Saturday and Sunday, which did not add up to much. The film closed its opening weekend with Rs 41 million.
*Badshaho added about 50 per cent of its weekend collection over the next four days taking its first week total to Rs 54.4 million. The film has shown a downward trend during its second weekend.
*Shubh Mangal Saavdhan maintained steady after its opening weekend, albeit, on the lower figures. The film collected Rs 223 million for its first week.
*A Gentleman dropped badly in its second week by collecting 73 lakh to take its two week tally to Rs 162.5 million.
*Bareilly Ki Barfi has added Rs 31 million in its third week to take its three week total to Rs 319 million.
*Toilet Ek Prem Katha continued to draw footfalls. It added Rs 17 million in its fourth week taking its four week total to Rs 1.284 billion.
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.
