Hindi
RKO, Lionsgate, Marvel sign deals with WGA
MUMBAI: As the Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike continues, the smaller film studios have started signing deals with the organisation. The three latest companies to have done interim deals with WGA are RKO, Lionsgate and Marvel Studios.
RKO‘s current production schedule, to be announced shortly, includes several original screen projects, as well as the financing, production and distribution of a number of new versions of classic films from RKO‘s 1,300-film library.
RKO‘s CEO Ted Hartley says, “The negotiation with the Guild was smooth and businesslike; they kept their agreement and we kept ours. It all moved ahead at a steady pace and resulted in good feelings on both sides. This now releases the pent-up energies of the talented executives, producers and writers at RKO. We all are eager to get back to creating great films and innovative programming today.”
In its statement, the WGA notes that in the past, RKO gave the world such classics as King Kong, Citizen Kane and It‘s a Wonderful Life. “Now it looks to the future, signing an interim agreement that recognises fair and respectful compensation for writers on the Internet and in new media. We applaud their forward thinking and are pleased to join with them in this agreement,” adds the satement.
Another company that did a deal is Marvel Studios. It has recently launched its film studio to develop, produce and fully finance Marvel movies, which will include Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk. The WGA praised Marvel for being committed to fairly compensating their writers and says that they can now move forward with their planned production schedule.
Earlier, The Weinstein Company, United Artists, Sidney Kimmel Entertainment, Spyglass Entertainment, MRC, Jackson Bites, Mandate Films and Worldwide Pants all signed deals with WGA.
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.
