Hindi
Jab We Met back with a vengeance
MUMBAI: Though Jab We Met was well-received it got the short end of the stick. It was the case of the sharks devouring the smaller fish when the two biggest films of our times bulldozed their way for a Diwali release. This rang the death knell for Jab We Met. Reduced to just two shows the film has now got sweet revenge by pushing its way back into business.
The poor performance of Saawariya in the opening of the current week has forced multiplexes to increase the number of shows of Jab We Met.
“JWM did well because it is a very good film and as there hasn‘t been a decent love story in a long time -only comedies and tragedies (pun intended) like Saawariya,” explains trade analyst Amod Mehra on the reason behind Jab We Met‘s bull run. “The chemistry of the lead couple was very good in the film and both Shahid and Kareena were excellent. I also think the Punjabi flavour of the film worked in its favour,” he surmises.
Saawariya did very good business in the opening week but could not sustain itself at the beginning of this week. Box office collections dropped and the multiplexes were compelled to do some damage control. They increased the number of shows of Jab We Met which had been edged out by the two major Diwali releases.
Mehra explains,” Jab We Met was doing well and had to go out because of the onslaught of Saawariya and OSO. This killed the film. It‘s all to do with the multiplex culture. Now as an apology they have brought it back. As people are still keen on seeing it this decision will help the film.”
“We have increased the number of shows from two to four in multiplexes,” says Parag Desai, Media consultant to Ashtavinayak, the distributors of Jab We Met.
In the modern day fight between David and Goliath, the small guy has won and how.
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.
