Hindi
Word of mouth may help family entertainer
Mubarakan came as a full family entertainer after a long gap, a gap when fillers and mediocre films reigned. However, the film’s opening day collections were poor to put it plainly. To a certain extent, the promotion and the presentation of the film were not quite attractive.
The promos on theatrical as well as electronic media were really dull telling little about the film except that it was about Arjun Kapoor playing double roles with Anil Kapoor playing the uncle. Little was visible or came through about the other aspects, the talented other artistes or, mainly, the music of the film which is its asset.
The film’s projection proceeded more like a family enterprise of Kapoors which is not an added attraction. Father sons, uncle nephews coming together is neither novelty nor assures a draw.
The result was that, the film opened to 15 per cent footfalls on Friday, failed to pick up and ended its opening day with just a little over `50 million. However, the word of mouth was generally positive and the film was expected to gain some momentum over Saturday and Sunday. The Saturday improvement looked good in percentage as it was over 40 per cent but not really since the opening Friday was poor. The collections took a leap on Sunday with double the opening day figures to end its opening weekend with `226 million.
If the film fails to cash in on the positive word of mouth that it enjoys through rest of the week, it is headed to be a loser. Also, because, this is the only week it gets to establish itself as come next Friday, there is a new, bigger release in Shah Rukh Khan- Anushka Sharma starring, Jab Harry Met Sejal.
*RaagDesh is a film about a British era court martial of three Royal Army Indian soldiers who were captured by the Japanese, let off to join Subhash Chandra Bose’ Indian National Army and, later charged for the killing of some soldiers. This film is beyond comprehension.
Which moviegoer would want to pay anything between `100 to 2000 to watch this film when they did not care to watch films on Sardar Patel, B R Ambedkar, Veer Savarkar, Nehru made over the years when even the ticket prices were not so high! The only film on a political leader of whatever we call history which got some attention was Gandhi and that too its English version; the Hindi version simply failed.
The purpose of making this film about ‘unknown heroes’ of IAN defies logic and, why the RajyaSabha TV involved in this project is a question!
As for box office, the film had no commercial prospects to explore to collect a mere `5.5 million for its opening weekend.
*Indu Sarkar is another example of a film which should never have been made. The trade describes this as an enterprise of personal political aspirations. The film on the 1975 emergency bore no relevance a few months after it was over as films made on the subject like KissaaKurseeKa and Nasbandi proved to be capital loss.
This shows on the box office. The film has been rejected. The film collected `26 million for opening three days.
*Munna Michael fails. After a mediocre opening, the only day it picked up a little was on Sunday only going downhill thereafter to end its first week with a total of `308 million.
*Lipstick Under My Burkha managed `105 million in its first week maintaining low but steady collection through the week. The film is holding steady in its second week.
*JaggaJasoos added `73 million in its second week to take its two week tally to `504 million.
*Mom has collected `22 million in its third week taking its three week tally to `318 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.
