Hindi
PVR Pictures lines up 20 releases for 2008
MUMBAI: PVR Pictures plans to release 20 films, both Bollywood and Hollywood, by the end of this year.
The company recently inked a distribution deal with US-based Focus Features for 13 Hollywood films which will be released in Indian theatres this year. Focus Features is the art house films division of NBC Universal‘s Universal Studios.
PVR acquired a good sum of films at Cannes in France this year. Around 12 films have been acquired from Focus Features. One of the deals have been struck with a distribution studio in Sydney, Australia and QED, Los Angeles, US.
PVR successfully distributed Dan In Real Life from Focus Features in May and Blindness opened at Cannes. Some of their forthcoming releases include In Brughes, Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day, The Other Boleyn Girl, Be Kind Rewind, Burn After Reading, Strangers.
PVR Ltd director Sanjeev Bijli says, “We have acquired a collection of films at Cannes this year which includes big ticket projects.” It also includes a Mel Gibson starrer film. Bijli confirms the acquisition cost at around $350000 to $400000.
PVR has distributed big films like The Aviator, Chicago, Kill Bill, Finding Neverland.
On being asked about whether PVR plans to strike co-production deals with international studios, Bijli says the company doesn‘t feel there is the need for it. “We don’t see ourselves heading in that area. We want to explore the Indian scenario and there is a lot happening here.”
PVR‘s bouquet of Hindi films for distribution include Ghatotkach (released), Mere Baap Pehle Aap and Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na. Contract, Mere Khwabon Main Jo Aaye are co-produced by PVR Pictures; PVR will also distribute them.
The Hindi films to be released this year have been acquired for a sum of Rs 300 million, says Bijli.
Amongst the Hindi lot, PVR has distributed Omkara, Don, Honeymoon Travels, Being Cyrus and Bheja Fry.
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.
