Hindi
Big stars unaffordable for independent producers
MUMBAI: Big films are getting scarce with some major studios pulling out from backing productions. Thanks to the corporate houses bankrolling films, the costs have escalated and the stars have become unaffordable for independent producers.
Besides these factors, a majority of big stars such as Aamir Khan, Salman Khan, Akshay Kumar, Shah Rukh Khan and Ajay Devgn, etc. now prefer to work mainly for their home productions or in joint ventures with directors who have successful track record.
In the circumstances, some independent producers are making a comeback, albeit, with films featuring lesser stars and relying more on different content, a story without props like action and special effects and such.
Some such films do turn out to be good, win appreciation as well, the two recent examples being Mukti Bhawan and Anaarakli Of Aarah. However, the moviegoer does not find such films viable at the admission high rates that multiplexes charge which are same as big star films.
*Begum Jaan, the new release of the week, is one such film that tries to tread a different trend, away from what its producers, the Bhatt Brothers, were known to make so far: mostly thrillers, romance laced with titillation backed by strong musical scores.
Remade in Hindi from the Bengali film Rajkahini (2015), the film lacked purpose. There were major issues, massacres and millions were uprooted from their homes and became refuges during the partition. And as the film’s story goes, here is this woman brothel owner who wants to save her brothel from being dismantled in the cause of creating a border wedge! And, the film also shows some flashbacks of the violence of that happened during the partition!
Begum Jaan opened to weak response, failed to find appreciation and, yet, thanks to some good promotion and expecting Vidya Balan to come up with another striking performance, it managed to rake in Rs 3.4 crore on the opening day. On Saturday and Sunday, the collections remained almost stagnant as the film collected Rs 10.6 crore for its opening weekend.
*Laali Ki Shaadi Mein Laaddoo Deewana has a disastrous opening week as the film manages to put together a meagre Rs 80 lakh.
*Mirza Juuliet, an intercommunity romance with politics and violence as the background in UP, fails badly. The film collects about Rs 55 lakh for its first week.
*Mukti Bhawan enjoys good word but not the moolah and collects just about Rs 50 lakh.
*Blue Mountain remained very low at about Rs 10 lakh in its first week.
*Bahubali: The Beginning (Re-run) collected Rs 3.1 crore in one week despite an extensive release.
*Naam Shabana sustained well in its second week to add approx. Rs 5.6 crore to its first week collections taking its two week tally to Rs 28.1 crore.
*Phillauri added Rs 40 lakh in its third week to take its three week total to Rs 24.6 crore.
*Badrinath Ki Dulhania collected Rs 1.1 crore in its fifth week to take its five week total to Rs 114.2 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.
