Hindi
Rs 350 cr in 17-day indomitable filmy ‘Dangal’
MUMBAI: There is not much in the offing except, December 23 carry forward, Dangal. There was no release on 30th since it is a norm not to fall in the shadow of a major release like Dangal as well as to avoid the year end Friday where the New Year eve celebrations affect box office collections negatively.
The film enjoys the benefit of exemption from paying Entertainment Tax in states of Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Haryana and Chhattisgarh,
The first Friday also went blank as the one scheduled release, Coffee With D, could not hit the screens for whatever reasons. As it were, the first Friday is considered to be unfruitful for the box office since films released on this day usually go unnoticed.
*In such an event, Dangal kept making the most of its overwhelming popularity and positive word of mouth. The film went on shattering record after records.
-Dangal registered the highest first Sunday by collecting Rs 42.35 crore and crossed Rs 100 crore mark in three days to finish its opening weekend with an impressive Rs 106.95 crore.
-The film’s first week figures stopped just short of Rs 200 crore mark at Rs 197.55 crore.
-Again, the film had a terrific second Sunday (day 10) of Rs 31.27 crore to mark second weekend of Rs 72.93 crore to take its 10 day total to Rs 271.24 crore.
-The collections held on well as the film finished its second week with 115.96 crore and taking its two week total past 300 milestone crore at Rs 313.51 crore.
– With a healthy third weekend of Rs 31.89 crore, the film’s collections stand at Rs 345.4 crore in 17 days.
*Befikre has collected about Rs 10 lakh in fourth week to take its four week tally to Rs 59.6 crore.
*Kahaani 2 has added Rs 10 lakh in its fifth week taking its five week tally to Rs 30.8 crore.
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.
