Hindi
Box Office: A disastrous week for film exhibitors
MUMBAI: It has been another disastrous week at the cinema halls and the wait is now on for Diwali week releases. All the releases failed to find audiences and faced the no-audience-no-show situation. The films released a week earlier were faced with the similar fate as well.
*31st October, a film about the 1984 Sikh genocide of Delhi; My Father Iqbal, a film about an honest and patriotic Kashmiri who chooses to die rather than betray the country and Ek Tera Saath, a film about palace intrigues with a dash of the supernatural, registered between Rs. 1 to Rs 10 lakh opening day figures. These films will only add to their production cost even post release as they won’t cover the distribution costs such as digital and promotion.
* Beiimaan Love: Trying to cash in on Sunny Leone falls flat as her popularity, sans acting talent, seems to have worn thin. After a poor opening weekend, the film collects Rs. 1.9 crore for its first week.
*Saat Uchakkey: Despite many talented artistes on the roster, suffers due to a poor screenplay and poorer direction. The actors end up mouthing cuss words and jumping around the screen with little to deliver. The film collects Rs. 1.6 crore in its first week.
*Anna: A biopic on the anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare manages to collect about Rs. 15 lakh in its first week.
*Fuddu: It collects about Rs. 20 lakh in its first week.
*Motu Patlu: King of Kings (Animation 3-D): It stands out among a horde of poor films as kids take to it at select multiplexes only. The film collects Rs. 2.9 crore in its first week.
*Mirzya: It continues its poor run at the box office adding just Rs. 40 lakh in its second week taking its two-week collections to Rs. 8.8 crore.
*Tutak Tutak Tutiya collects Rs. 15 lakh in its second week taking its two-week total to Rs. 2.9 crore.
*M S Dhoni: The Untold Story continues its good run in the third week as other weak new releases give it a free run at the box office. The film collects Rs. 8.4 crore to take its three-week total to Rs. 115.8 crore.
*Pink collects Rs. 40 lakh in its fifth week, taking its five-week total to Rs. 67.4 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.
