Hindi
Warner Bros unveils slate of four Bollywood films
MUMBAI: Warner Bros is pumping up its movie business in India. In a fresh deal aimed at increasing the Bollywood slate, the company has inked a three-film production and distribution deal with People Tree Films, a production house set up by Mukesh Talreja (producer of Tere Naam) and Nikhil Advani (director of Kal Ho Na Ho).
Warner Bros Pictures India‘s pact is for the films titled Jaane Kahaa Se Aayi Hai, Chandbhai and Basra.
“We will not only co-produce the films but also distribute and market them in India and overseas,” says a Warner Bros spokesperson.
Warner Bros has also signed a film with Vinay Pathak and Rituparna Sengupta. The film, titled SRK, is currently under production.
Jaane Kahaa Se Aayi Hai, directed by Milap Milan Zaveri, stars Riteish Deshmukh, Jacqueline Fernandez and Ruslaan Mumtaz. A romantic comedy about a woman from Venus who crash-lands on earth looking for love, the film is slated for a 2009 summer release. The music of the film has been composed by Sajid & Wajid.
Chandbhai is Nikhil Advani‘s second directorial venture with Warner Bros. after Chandni Chowk to China. The film, which casts Akshay Khanna and Vidya Balan as the lead protagonists, tells the story of two characters who change their lives by facing their inner demons and embracing life and happiness in the process. Shankar, Ehsaan and Loy are the music directors of the film.
Directed by Navdeep Singh, Basra revolves around the lives of a spy and a cop. The film stars Akshaye Khanna as the central figure.
Says Talreja, “We are looking at releasing Jaane Kahaa Se Aayi Hai in the summer of 2009, Chandbhai during Diwali 2009 and Basra will hit the cinemas by 2009-end.”
Warner Bros forayed into Bollywood film production with Saas bahu Aur Sensex. Chandni Chowk to China, a $12 million budget film which is slated for release on 16 January, is Warner Bros Pictures‘ second Bollywood film.
Earlier this year, Warner Bros Pictures India had inked a multi-movie deal with Soundarya Rajnikanth‘s Ocher Studios. The pact covered the production and distribution of South Indian language films to be released by Warner Bros.
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.
