Hindi
Italy’s Marden Entertainment inks co-production deals with Switch Media, Bollywood Network
MUMBAI: Italy-based Marden Entertainment has signed an agreement with web-hosting company Switch Media Services. Additionally, Marden has also signed a declaration of intent with Bollywood Network of India.
The agreements were signed on 27 March, which marked the concluding day of Ficci-Frames 2008.
Under the agreement, Switch Media will co-produce the movie The Choice.
Marden Entertainment and Switch Media will work towards creating digital assets, and distribute them globally via online video using Switch Media platform. Together, they will also develop mobile phone applications pertaining to The Choice.
Switch Media will also provide its video management platform and undertake to commercialise the project for online video and mobile consumption in the primary markets of Italy, Europe, the UK and US, and the secondary markets like Asia, Australia, the UAE, South Africa and South America.
Both companies will create a business plan for the successful monetisation and electronic distribution of The Choice for online video and mobile.
In the agreement between Marden Entertainment and Bollywood Network, the latter will provide the Indian casting for The Choice. Bollywood Network will cover all costs related to the Indian cast such as transportation, housing and salary, consultation on Indian costumes as well as costs related to the purchase.
Marden Entertainment will cover the remaining cost related to the production and marketing of the film.
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.
