Hindi
Are multiple composers ‘Welcome’?
MUMBAI: The complexion of film music has been undergoing a sea change. The once solitary job of scoring music is now a collaborative effort. Though this trend was noticed quite some time ago, it continues even now. A multi star cast film just does not mean an impressive line-up of stars but also multiple composers and lyricists.
The late eighties and nineties saw the emergence of this trend. It continues even today. With the release of Welcome, the Anees Bazmee film audiences will once again be treated to music by multi-composers. Himesh Reshamiya, Sajid-Wajid and Anand Raj Anand will share the credits.
In the late nineties when the trend was catching on, the much-in-demand Bappi Lahiri decided to take a sabbatical. He went on record to say that he was confused with the goings-on and hence would be going on a break. Though of course some time later Bappi did concede to compose a few songs in films which had other composers.
Even composers Anand–Milind were disturbed with this trend and felt that they lost out to a lot of work on account of this.
With the soundtrack of multi-starrer Welcome officially out in the market, the fact that there as many as three heavyweight music composers credited has not gone unnoticed.
According to the director of Welcome, Aneez Bazmee, Himesh Reshammiya was the original choice especially after he delivered a hit score for the producer Firoz Nadiadwala‘s earlier film, Phir Hera Pheri.
But as Himesh could not give the film sufficient attention because of his acting committments, the producer and director mutually decided to rope in Anand Raj Anand (Shootout At Lokhandwala) and Sajid-Wajid (Partner) to score the remaining tracks.
Himesh confirms, “All‘s well. Firoz bhai, Aneez bhai and the other composers are friends and we‘re all perfectly fine with the arrangement.”
Welcome, starring Akshay Kumar, Katrina Kaif, Paresh Rawal, Anil Kapoor, Nana Patekar, Feroz Khan & Mallika Sherawat, releases on 20 December.
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.
