Hindi
Relativity Media, Universal Pictures expand funding partnership
MUMBAI: Relativity Media and Universal Pictures in the US recently extended and expanded their co-finance partnership through 2015, which will cover the majority of Universal‘s slate up until that time.
Building on the success of their already established equity partnership, which has funded recent films such as Mamma Mia!, The Mummy: Tomb Of The Dragon Emperor and Hellboy II: The Golden Army, the expanded partnership is expected to fund 10-15 films per year and will provide billions of dollars of financing during the term.
Relativity Media CEO Ryan Kavanaugh says, “We‘ve had tremendous success with Universal. Our deal has been very profitable to date and the Universal creative, marketing and distribution team is unparalleled. They are true partners.”
The agreement represents a significant long-term commitment by Relativity Media to Universal Pictures, as its financing entity Relativity Capital Holdings will co-finance approximately 75 per cent of Universal‘s upcoming releases.
Universal Pictures executive VP Michael Joe says, “Universal is pleased to further expand its existing relationship with Relativity. We have had a genuine collaborative partnership to date, and we look forward to expanding on our ambitions together in the future. Their commitment to us means that we can continue to do what we do best: Develop quality movies that appeal to filmgoers across the globe.”
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.
