Hindi
3 Idiots, Chennai Express & Hera Pheri hold maximum franchise potential in Hindi cinema: Ormax’s latest report
Mumbai: Media consulting firm Ormax Media today announced the launch of its new report titled ‘The Bollywood Franchise Report: 2023’. The report identifies Top 100 Hindi film franchises (current & potential), based on audience equity. The research is the result of a survey conducted amongst 3,000 regular Hindi film-goers across India, in Oct-Nov 2023.
Films released between Jan 1990 to Sep 2023 were assessed in the report. Ormax Media released select findings, which reveal that 3 Idiots, Chennai Express, Hera Pheri, Jawan, and Drishyam are the top 5 franchises (current/ potential) based on audience equity. Notably, Shah Rukh Khan has four entries in the top 10 – Chennai Express (no. 2), Jawan (no. 4), Chak De! India (no. 8) and Pathaan (no. 10). Drishyam stands out as the only suspense thriller franchise amongst the top 10.
Commenting on the significance of the report, Ormax Media business development (theatrical head) Sanket Kulkarni said, “Franchise films have been a dominant force driving the growth and stability for Hollywood over the past two decades. The contribution of franchise films to the Hindi theatrical domestic box office has grown from a mere 17 per cent in 2019 to 45 per cent in 2023. As the theatrical landscape increasingly leans toward event-driven films, choosing the right film to expand or initiate the franchise can go a long way in creating a powerful theatrical product. This report will aid studios, producers & content creators take more informed and audience-centric decisions related to greenlighting, budgeting and marketing franchise-based projects in the Hindi film industry.”
The detailed report, available upon subscription, has the list of top 100 franchises, and insights related to how franchise equity varies across various demographics, such as age, gender, markets, etc.
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.
