Hindi
US home video generated $15.9 bn in sales, $8.2 bn in rentals in 2007
MUMBAI: Home video in the US generated $15.9 billion in sales and $8.2 billion in rentals in 2007.
Nearly nine million high-definition discs were sold in 2007, for which consumers spent more than $260 million. There were 12,177 DVDs released in 2007, down from a peak of 13,950 in 2005.
The 2008 Annual Report on the Home Entertainment Industry has been released by the Entertainment Merchants Association (EMA) in the US.
EMA president and CEO Bo Andersen says, “Consumers remain enamored with DVD and video games even as they incorporate new forms of entertainment media into their consumption patterns. New generations of hardware and software, and alternative delivery channels, will ensure that home video and video games remain phenomenally popular entertainment options for the American public for years to come.”
The number-one DVD seller in 2007 was Happy Feet. The Departed led the rental charts. High School Musical 2 was the best selling TV on DVD title and 300 was the leading high-definition disc movie.
It is estimated that, in 2012, sales of Blu-ray Discs will exceed those of standard DVDs and will generate sales of $9.5 billion. Home video spending is projected to increase to $25.6 billion in 2012.
Traditional rental stores, dominated by Blockbuster, accounted for 73 per cent of the rental business in 2007. Online subscription rental (such as Netflix and Blockbuster’s Total Access) were 25 per cent of the market. Kiosk rental doubled its market share to two per cent.
There were approximately 10,000 DVD rental kiosks operational in the US at the end of 2007.
The Entertainment Merchants Association (EMA) is a not-for-profit international trade association dedicated to advancing the interests of the $33 billion home entertainment industry. EMA represents approximately 600 companies throughout the US, Canada, and other nations.
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.
