Hindi
MySpace launches Black Curtain screenings in India
MUMBAI: MySpace has introduced their ‘Black Curtain’ screening programme for its Indian users. Beginning with four times Golden Globe winner Slumdog Millionaire, the programme offers MySpace users a free access to the latest movies prior to public release.
Slumdog Millionaire will be screened for MySpace users at the Fame theatre in Mumbai on 23 January. Also, users will be witnessing interactive games, photo opportunities and celebrity meet-and-greets.
MySpace India‘s country manager Hari Krishnan said, “India has a rich history and a vibrant movie industry and we believe that ‘Black Curtain Screenings’ will not only engage and excite users but also provide a powerful platform for studios to effectively promote their films.”
Following this launch, MySpace will be hosting a series of screenings showcasing the most anticipated Bollywood, Hollywood and new world movies prior to their commercial release across India.
The company is also anticipating collaboration with other movie studios, as with Fox Star Studios on this occasion to continue to roll out entertainment marketing programs for users and movie lovers.
“This platform is aimed at enhancing brand and user engagement, and provides a highly effective marketing method for movie distributors,” said MySpace India director marketing Tarun Tripathi. “The MySpace India community is a highly creative and culturally aware group of individuals who provide an exciting pool of target key opinion formers to build discussion and interest amongst their peers about a new release.”
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.
