Hindi
Shree Ashtavinayak to invest Rs 9 bn in movie slate; plans foray into regional films
MUMBAI: Shree Ashtavinayak Cine Vision is investing Rs 9 billion for production of 20 films which will include its foray into regional language cinema.
A producer of Hindi hits like Jab We Met and Bhagambhag, Shree Ashtavinayak intends to produce four films in the Tamil and Telugu segment.
In the “multiple” production pipeline, the first to release will be Shivam Nair’s suspense thriller Maharathi, starring Naseruddin Shah, Om Puri, Paresh Rawal, Boman Irani and Neha Dhupia. The film will hit the screens on 22 August.
This will be followed by the release of Sanjay Gadhvi’s Kidnap on 2 October and Rohit Shetty’s Golmaal Returns on 24 October. While the cast of Kidnap include Sanjay Dutt, Minnisha Lamba, Vidya Malvade, Rahul Dev and Imran Khan, Golmaal Returns stars Ajay Devgan, Tusshar Kapoor, Arshad Warsi, Shreyas Talpade and Kareena Kapoor.
Meanwhile, the ongoing projects from the Ashtavinayak kitty that are currently under production include Blue and Luck. Directed by Anthony D’Souza, Blue stars Sanjay Dutt, Akshaye Kumar, Lara Dutta, Katrina Kaif and Zayed Khan. The cast of Soham Shah’s Luck, which marks the debut of Kamal Hasan’s daughter Sruti Hassan, include Sanjay Dutt, Imran Khan, Danny Denzongpa, Ravi Kissen and Mithun Chakraborty.
Also, the projects in pipeline include Neeraj Vora‘s two films namely Run Bhola Run starring Govinda, Tusshar Kapoor, Tanushree Dutta and Amisha Patel and One Way Ticket starring Anil Kapoor and Akshaye Khanna.
Shree Ashtavinayak has also closed two separate co-production deals with Sri Jaganaath Entertainment and Sanjay Dutt Productions. While it will be co-producing Mudh Mudh Ke Na Dekh Mudh Mudh Ke with the former, it will co-produce Bond with the latter.
The company has also signed up directors like Rummi Jaffery, Vivek Sharma, Rohit Shetty and Imtiaz Ali for its untitled projects.
Shree Ashtavinayak raised $33 million via FCCBs (foreign currency convertible bonds) last year. The issue had an additional option to raise $5 million.
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.
