Hindi
Essel Group pumps in Rs 1 bn to set up budget multiplexes
MUMBAI: Essel Group has floated E-City Bioscope Entertainment to set up a chain of budget cinema theatres, for which it has lined up an equity investment of Rs 1 billion.
The Group already operates Fun Cinemas in the premium segment. Talkie Town, Fun‘s value brand, focuses on single screens.
“We have invested Rs 1 billion and are creating ‘economy‘ cinemas. We see viability in the Rs 60-65 ticket model. We will have two-three screens in our multiplexes. Some will also be single screen theatres,” E-City Bioscope Entertainment operating director Gagan Goel tells Indiantelevision.com.
The Bioscope brand of theatres will make their first appearance in the state of Rajasthan. Ajmer will come up in February 2009, says Goel. “Our plan is to have 35-40 screens across 15 centres in Rajasthan over the next 3-4 years.”
Though the multiplex at Jodhpur is already operational, it is not low-priced.
In Rajasthan, Bioscope Entertainment has already acquired land at 10 locations and started construction work in six of them.
Bioscope also plans to launch in other states across B and C class towns. “We are evaluating the land prices. We will have a presence in the Hindi speaking markets,” says Goel.
Bioscope Entertainment will set up malls, food courts, kids zones and multiplexes. “We will sell the retail space and retain the multiplex. We are acquiring land for this, but will also have a model where we take property on lease like in Jodhpur,” says Goel.
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.
