Movies
SPNI and Mojo production launches Maacher Jhol’s trailer
MUMBAI: Sony Pictures Networks India’s (SPN) latest offering, co-produced by Mojo Productions Pvt. Ltd, bengali film Maacher Jhol’s trailer was launched today on the big screen in the presence of the cast and crew.
Written and directed by award-winning filmmaker Pratim D. Gupta, is a heartwarming journey of an internationally renowned Masterchef struggling to cook the quintessential Bengali dish, Maacher Jhol (fish curry).
The official trailer, launched at the popular Kolkata cinema hall Priya, gave the audience a sneak peak of the film that has been shot in Kolkata and Paris and has music by Anupam Roy of Piku fame. Award-winning actor Ritwick Chakraborty plays Masterchef Dev D while the legendary Mamata Shankar plays his mother, and Paoli Dam his wife Sreela. “Maacher Jhol” is all set for a 18th August release in Bengal followed by a national release in the later weeks.
Sony Pictures Networks India executive vice president Tushar Shah said, “Maacher Jhol beautifully captures the emotional bond between mother and son and how they make beautiful memories with food. It also brings out the flavors and aromas of Masterchef Dev’s relationship with various people who made an indelible impact on his life. We are confident that this heartwarming drama will change the way people watch Bengali cinema forever.”
Mojo Productions Pvt. Ltd Joy B. Ganguly also added, “We have reached an inflection point in regional cinema, and Bengali films are in the forefront. Our second co-production for Sony Pictures Networks India has been a great experience. Pratim’s vision for “Maacher Jhol” will be a clutter breaker in the Indian film industry, the trailer is just one example.”
Talking about the film, writer and director Pratim D. Gupta said: “Maacher Jhol has turned out to be a visceral experience to be seen, heard, felt and, most importantly, tasted. It celebrates a very Bengali sentiment but is universal in its resonance. Partnering with Sony Pictures Networks India and Joy has been a very fulfilling and enriching experience, given their unalloyed passion for cinema.”
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.
