Hindi
Big Cinemas associates with Maniyar Market
MUMBAI: Big Cinemas, a division of Reliance MediaWorks and a member of Reliance Group, has announced its association with Maniyar Market – a multi brand retail store into provisions and grains. This association will culminate into the launch of a 7,730 sq ft supermarket inside Big Cinemas. In addition to this, Maniyar Market will also be opening Quick Service Restaurants (QSRs) and eateries inside the premises, catering to the local flavour needs of Aurangabad.
Harihar Maniyar said: “We felt that both Big Cinemas and Maniyar Market follow a format that attracts high footfalls and bringing these together would definitely result in a win-win situation for both. We are extremely glad to be associated with the Reliance Group.”
Big Cinemas, with over 410 screens across the country, has a strong reach in the interiors and metros alike and is gradually adopting a retail model, thereby encouraging F&B as well as lifestyle brands to come together and offer an enhanced experience to customers.
Big Cinemas head – sales and marketing Shirish Srivastava said: “The association with Maniyar Market is in alignment with our goal to adopt a retail model at Big Cinemas. We are here to integrate cinema viewing along with retail therapy and hope Aurangabad enjoys this pilot project.”
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.
