Hindi
Pyramid Saimira’s Singapore subsidiary to raise $75 million via private placement
MUMBAI: Pyramid Saimira Entertainment Ltd (PSEL), a Singapore-based subsidiary company of Pyramid Saimira Theatre Ltd (PSTL), plans to raise $75 million (Rs 3 billion) through private equity investors.
“We will dilute 25 per cent stake to raise this amount. We have received term sheets from private equity investors,” Pyramid Saimira managing director PS Saminathan tells Indiantelevision.com.
This will value the subsidiary company at $300 million (Rs 12 billion). “We will be using the funds to ramp up our film distribution business. As we expand our theatre chain, we will need more content. The film purchases for distribution will be funded by the Singapore subsidiary company,” says Saminathan.
Pyramid Saimira Productions Ltd (PSPL), another subsidiary company for film and TV production business, is planning to float an initial public offering (IPO) to raise Rs 1.5 billion.
“We are close to filing draft red herring prospectus with Sebi (Securities and Exchange Board of India),” says Saminathan.
PSPL will dilute 10-12 per cent equity through the IPO and the funds will be used to expand the film and TV production businesses.
PSTL recently bought out Texas-based FunAsia, becoming the first Indian theatre chain to enter into the US market. The acquisition was made through PSTL‘s US subsidiary Pyramid Saimira Entertainment America Inc.
“We will be initially raising debt to expand operations in the North American region. The funding for the expansion in this region will be done through our US subsidiary company,” says Saminathan.
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.
