Hindi
Warner Bros Pictures to foray into animation films in India
MUMBAI: Warner Bros Pictures India is entering the animation genre, setting in process its aggressive movie plans in India.
Warner Bros will fund, market and distribute worldwide the animated film which is to be directed by Jyotin Goel. The untitled film will be presented under the Warner Bros Pictures banner and produced by Jyotin Goel’s Geol Screencraft.
Earlier this year Warner Bros Pictures India had inked a multi-movie deal with Soundarya Rajnikanth‘s Ocher Studios to get a footprint across the four southern languages. The pact covers the production and distribution of live action South Indian language films.
“We are making an entry into the animation genre in India. We are delighted to associate with Jyotin for this film,” said Warner Bros Pictures India country manager Blaise Fernandes.
The post production will be handled by Interactive Realities International (IRIPL) that specialises in multimedia production, Internet applications, e-learning and web solutions in India.
Elaborating on the story-line of the film, director Jyotin Goel said, “This is a story of love and adventure, full of color, music, drama and comedy. The film is not based on the human kingdom but portrays the melodious world of birds and attempts to explore their lives from an unusual standpoint. It is a journey into the lives of birds as they soar over dense jungles and teeming cities, giving them a point of view of the world that is hilariously different from ours.”
Additionally, Warner Bros is also set to release two of its productions this year. While Warner Bros‘ solo production Saas Bahu Sensex is slated to release on 18 September, Chandni Chowk to China, a Warner Bros co-production with Mukesh Talreja and Ramesh Sippy, will hit the screens on 24 October.
Hollywood studios have been busy chalking out their movie plans in India, a market where they see high potential growth. Last year, Walt Disney signed a co-production deal with Yash Raj Films. As per the deal, the two companies would be releasing one animated movie per year.
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.
