Hindi
Ashutosh Gowariker Productions celebrates 10 years
MUMBAI: Years ago, Ashutosh told his wife Sunita that he wanted to start a production house under which he would direct his films but only on the condition that she holds the reigns of production. On 17 December 2004, their first film Swades released and it was clear that they made a formidable team and Ashutosh Gowariker Productions Pvt. Ltd. (AGPPL) quickly became a respected production house in the industry.
Celebrating its 10 year anniversary, AGPPL travelled back in time to bring the audiences the epic romance of Jodhaa Akbar. A visual big screen extravaganza with memorable performances from both Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, the film went on to gross over Rs 100 crore at the box office, and became a popular benchmark.
AGPPL has previously produced films like Swades, Jodhaa Akbar, What’s Your Raashee?, Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey and the recent television production, Everest. Their recent foray into television production began this year with one of the most ambitious projects in Indian television till date. Everest is the unique combination of an emotional story with scale and action.
AGPPL is now focused on what awaits them in the next decade. 2015 begins with the filming of their Hrithik Roshan starrer, Mohenjo Daro. Set during the Indus Valley Civilization, Mohenjo Daro is an epic adventure-drama love story, set in an ancient era but in a modern context. The film brings together award winning international technicians and also introduces new find Pooja Hegde, opposite Hrithik.
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.
