Hindi
Tubelight figures dampen trade
The failure of Tubelight has affected exhibition trade in two ways. The main one was that — it did not meet the exhibitors’ expectations as the opening day response was disappointing. Peaking of the film on Eid day and Baasi Eid day did not happen.
In fact, unlike previous Salman Khan movies, which excelled on two days of Eid festivities, Tubelight registered a drop. While Eid day (Monday) figures were below the opening day figures, the next day showed a drop of as much as 40 per cent.
The collections went downhill from Tuesday.
The other way how the cinemas suffered was because, when a big star’s film releases, it is expected to carry on for at least 10 to 14 days. In view of a big film release, no other film wants to come in its shadow due to which the following Friday is kept open or, an inconsequential small film gets some limited shows.
The cinema halls suffered because of Tubelight even in the week following its release. The only release to follow was Ek Haseena Thi Ek Deewana Tha, an indulgent film made to launch a family scion, Shiv Darshan, by its producer-director Suneel Darshan.
The first half of the year 2017 has been disastrous for the exhibition trade. Only one small budget film, Hindi Medium, has worked. Though the film is a big hit in relation to investment, it is not the money-spinner that the cinemas crave.
The film that saved the day for cinemas is Bahubali 2: The Conclusion (Dubbed), South’s gift to exhibitors. Save for these two films besides some English features, it has been a bad first half of the year.
* Ek Haseena Thi Ek Deewana Tha met with ‘No audience No Show’ welcome from its day one. The collection figures for the weekend remained below Rs 50 lakh.
* Tubelight, which entailed big investments from its theatrical distributors, has put them in distress as they are faced with huge losses. The film’s lifetime business is not even expected to match the opening weekend business of Salman Khan’s last two releases, Rustom and Bajrangi Bhaijan! And, this is a huge setback.
Tubelight ended its first week with a total of Rs 103.7 crore (Rs 1037 million). The second weekend has failed to pull audience registering poor collections of about seven crore (Rs 70 million) rupees.
* Rest of the recent releases fared poorly.
* Hindi Medium has come to the end of its good run at the box office.
* Bahubali 2: The Conclusion just about ends its glorious, record setting run by adding a symbolic Rs 40 lakh (Rs 4 million) in its ninth week.
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.
