Hindi
‘Bang Bang’ shoots ahead of ‘Haider’ at the Box Office
MUMBAI: The last minute tug of war for screen time domination between Bang Bang and Haider to cash in on a five day holiday weekend starting Thursday did not help much as these holidays fell during, what is known as the dull period. Both the films could not manage to collect what was expected.
Bang Bang opened with inflated admission rates which its content did not justify. The film catered action for the sake of action with the main villain being kept out through most parts of the movie. While the film registered a two figure drop the next day of its release, on Saturday the drop was more significant with around 30 per cent and not making much on Sunday either. The film collected Rs 80 crore for the first five days.
Haider which also released on Thursday with the long weekend in sight, opened to an average collection and remained steady on the lower side through the weekend. There is little of universal appeal in the film. While there are not many takers on Kashmir’s terrorism, this film however binds a bunch of family members with terrorism with each one bending back over backwards to betray the other. The film managed to put together Rs 23.3 crore for the first five days.
Desi Kattey was poor and collected Rs 3.1 crore in its first week while 3 AM is a loser with Rs 1.9 crore to account for its first week.
Daawat-e-Ishq did average in its second week by collecting Rs 5.1 crore to take its two week total business to Rs 25.56 crore. On the other hand, Khoobsurat has managed to do well in its second week by collecting Rs. 7.5 crore to take its two week tally to Rs. 23.95 crore.
Finding Fanny added Rs 65 lakh for its third week to take its three week total collection to Rs 27.70 crore. The biopic Mary Kom has added Rs 80 lakh for its fourth week taking its four week tally now to Rs. 56.55 crore.
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.
