Hindi
Sony, Balaji’s cold launch on a cold night – ‘Kkoi Dil Mein Hai’
On 27 September showmanship scaled amazing heights when film-maker Vashu Bhagnani released the music of his last venture Out Of Control (Ritesh Deshmukh, Hrishita Bhatt, Brande Roderick) in an aircraft, en route to Delhi.The producer hired an entire aircraft of Air Sahara to launch the music of the film mid-air. From the boarding cards to the head rests in the aircraft – everything had the logo of the film embossed. Besides, cloth banners of the film were put up at the entrance of the domestic airport (Santacruz in Mumbai).
Then, came producer Manmohan Shetty with his new film‘s launch, Waqt- A Race Against Time on 24 November, at Mumbai‘s Juhu Beach! Starring Amitabh Bachchan, Akshay Kumar, Priyanka Chopra, Paresh Rawal and Rajpal Yadav, the film is being produced by Blockbuster Movie Entertainers and presented by Manmohan Shetty, Kishore Lulla and Sunil Lulla.
| If the film industry can get innovative, why should the television industry lag behind? So thought Ekta Kapoor and Sony Entertainment Television. On 21 December, Balaji |  |
Telefilms‘ new serial Kkoi Dil Mein Hai was launched amidst ‘promised‘ fanfare at a surprising venue- Mikanos, a happening discotheque in Mumbai.
The evening was flagged off by a few games which the DJ played with the youngsters around. After a while, a huge cake was cut – it was Karishma Tanna‘s birthday (Psst… thought of asking her which one, but let it pass!). After a few snacks and drinks, we were served the screening of the first episode.
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Every 10 minutes, the DJ (not that we can recall his name!!) gave us a break and asked questions on the serial. ‘Watch it with attention, you dare not drown yourself with more pegs‘ – was the message. Anyways… |
| Mikanos DJ with Poorva Gokhle at the Kkoi Dil Mein Hai party |
Every 10 minutes, the DJ (not that we can recall his name!!) gave us a break and asked questions on the serial. ‘Watch it with attention, you dare not drown yourself with more pegs‘ – was the message. Anyways…
We cannot go by the guys and gals who were asked ‘Kaisa Lag Raha Hai?‘ by the DJ. They ‘had to‘ gush, we believe. So we kept our ears open. The hushed whispers behind our backs revealed that the serial had been accepted, but people found it a bit too similar to Saaya and Jassi. Saaya; because this too has two friends as different as chalk and cheese and Jassi; because the episode starkly preached that beauty lies within, simplicity is the essence of life, blah, blah, blah…
The cr?me de la cr?me of the Balaji camp were conspicuous by their absence. So the party was sans Ekta Kapoor, Jeetendra, Shobha Kapoor and Nim Sood. Neither did any of the leading cast of Ekta‘s other serials grace the occasion, though earlier we had been told that they would.
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We saw only Karishma Tanna (in a tight black top and the same black skirt which she wore throughout the inaugural episode!) who made a hurried exit as soon as the screening was over. She said she wanted to celebrate her birthday in ‘Bombay Blues‘. |
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| SET India executive VP Sunil Lulla, actors Poorva Gokhle & Karishma Tanna at Mikanos |
Also present at the party were Poorva Gokhle (in a white top with a pink tight pant), glamorous Ashlesha Sawant (Kahiin To Hoga and ex-Kyunki Saas Bhi Bahu Thi) looking like a million dollars, model-turned-actress Suchitra Pillai (wonder what was she doing there? Her film coffers are not full. Is she going to lean on television? Are we going to see her in the serial as fashionable Karishma Tanna‘s friend, just like we saw Mandira Bedi adding glamour in Jassi Jaissi Koi Nahin for a while?), Aditya Dongra (Addi of Kyun Hota Hai Pyarrr) and Sandeep B (who plays the guy sandwiched between the two friends in this show).
The music was good, but hardly anybody took to the dance floor to shake a leg.
The mercury had dipped when we drove back home, nearing midnight. The ‘thanda‘ attendance had compounded the chill.
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.
