Hindi
Ashok Amritraj’s sequel of Ghost Rider opening on 17 February
MUMBAI: Veteran tennis player Ashok Amritraj is gearing up to release the sequel of Ghost Rider titled Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance in 3D on 17 February.
A sequel to the 2007 film, Ghost Rider has Nicolas Cage returning as Johnny Blaze. Directed by Mark Neveldine, the film also stars Ciarán Hinds and Idris Elba.
Amritraj, a big fan of Marvel Comics, feels that the sequel is a big step forward for the franchise, especially in terms of special effects. About the current craze of filmmakers going in for making films in 3D, Amritraj has been quoted to have said, ” 3D looks terrific for certain films like Transformers where it enhances the viewing experience. However, if it is used as a gimmick, then it can get annoying. Much of the experience depends on the content of the film itself and I feel Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance fits the 3D bill perfectly.”
Elaborating on the changes he has seen in the last three decades, Amritraj said, “The market is changing with newer distribution and production challenges. Suddenly, DVD has gone down and streaming is up.We are talking to a lot more with companies like Google, Netflix and Facebook for marketing and distribution purposes.”
The film, made under the Hyde Park Entertainment banner, is being released under the banner of Marvel Knights.
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.
