Hindi
Akshay Kumar’s Rustom manages to hold attention while Mohenjo Daro trails way behind
MUMBAI: With two major releases wanting to make the most of the long Independence Day weekend extending toMonday, the media had a field day. However, this was not the case with the two releases. While one raked in the mulla and the audience admiration, the other hit the bottom even before it could take off.
Rustom, with Akshay Kumar playing a naval officer and a murder accused, won half the hearts just by donning his navy uniform; the gaps in the story and the convenient play with the screenplay notwithstanding. With a limited screen engagement compared to big bill movies, the film managed to cross an impressive Rs 14 crore mark. The film held on well and consolidated on day two, Saturday, by over 10% peaking on Sunday by bettering its opening day collections by almost 40% its opening weekend just falling short of the Rs 50 crore mark at Rs 49.85 crore.
The film held on strongly on Monday thanks to the Independence Day national holiday to match itsSunday figures with about Rs 17.8 crore to take its four-day total to Rs 67,65 crore.
Mohenjo Daro, a routine script couched as a pre-historic saga from Mohenjo Daro civilization, pays heavily for total lack of creativity, be it story, script or narration. A routine B grade bahubali story takes the audience for granted who failed to turn up in required number resulting in poor opening day figures.
The film even fell way short of the Rs 10 crore mark on its opening day to collect Rs 8.8 crore, gaining only little on Saturday with the Sunday growth also being insignificant as it struggled to put together Rs 29.8 crore. The film managed to add another Rs 9.25 crore for the Independence Day holiday on Mondayas the poor word of mouth spread. The fact that the film would be carrying an exorbitant price tag would qualify it as a huge disaster.
Budhia Singh- Born To Run, despite much appreciation, does not manage to add much to its opening weekend, collecting Rs 1.9 crore for its first week.
The Legend of Michael Mishra could not add much to its first weekend collections. The film closes its first week with a poor Rs 75 lakh in its first week.
Fever fails to create thrill with its poor suspense drama as it collected a meagre Rs 80 lakh for its first week.
Dishoom did well in its second week though falling short of the promise it showed during the second weekend as it ended its second week with Rs 12.8 crore to take its two-week tally to Rs 64.6 crore.
Madaari braves all oppositions in its third week by collecting Rs 1.25 crore to take its three- week tally to Rs 16.7 crore.
Kabali (Hindi dubbed from Tamil) collected Rs 1.1 crore for its third week to take its three week total to
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.
