Hindi
UTV wins case, Jodhaa Akbar to be screened nationwide
MUMBAI: UTV Motion Pictures can now screen Jodhaa Akbar anywhere across the country. The company has won the case in the Supreme Court on 4 March leading to the lifting of the ban on the film not only in UP but nationwide till 14 March.
“Even in the smallest local areas and regions the film can be screened now. We have won the case in the Supreme Court and as per the verdict, the film will be immune to any ban anywhere in the country,” said UTV Motion Pictures director Siddharth Roy Kapur to Indiantelevision.com.
UTV motion pictures had moved the Supreme Court on 3 March following the ban on Jodhaa Akbar in UP.
Before the SC hearing took place, Roy Kapur had told Indiantelevision.com, “There‘s no point fighting the ban from one state to the other. Hence, we finally decided to move the Supreme Court on Monday.”
The UP government had banned Ashutosh Gowariker‘s controversial film on Saturday siting law and order problems in the state, where the film met with some protests.
UTV had earlier moved the High Courts of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan to lift the ban on the screenings, and in both courts it had won the case.
The film has already faced ban in parts of Haryana and Uttaranchal following protests over the alleged wrong depiction of some historical characters in the film.
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.
