Hindi
Box Office: ‘Hate Story 3’ takes in Rs 22.6 crore in opening weekend
MUMBAI: Hate Story 3 overcomes its lesser content drawback at the box office over its earlier versions on the strength of its brand equity and expectant audience of single screens, which went to see skin on display. That helped the film get in excellent opening response. The collections dropped as the opening day progressed but not enough to stop the film from collecting over Rs 8 crore for the opening day. Saturday showed a marginal drop but was still good; the film’s solo status at the cinemas helped. After a good Sunday, the film has collected Rs 22.6 crore in its first weekend and should easily recover its investment by day four.
Despite having a strong social media buzz Angry Indian Goddesses goes without making a mark.
Tamasha, which had a decent weekend thanks to the Ranbir Kapoor – Deepika Padukone pairing and the Nadiadwala banner to back them, opened well but fell to bad reports thanks to its mediocrity and lack of content after the weekend. It started losing footfalls massively. The film, which accounted for an opening weekend of Rs 38.2 crore could add only about Rs 15 crore for the next four days to end its first week with Rs 53.5 crore. The film is slated to be a loser as it won’t justify its steep price tag of almost Rs 100 crore.
Prem Ratan Dhan Paayo goes down as the first major failure of the year and, a rare Rajshri film that remains unappreciated. The film was a drain on the audience and remains so at the box office. With a meagre box office taking of Rs 4.1 crore for its third week, it remains way short of its recovery mark. This takes its three week total to Rs 199.3 crore.
With no new release next week, theatre chains are going to have a tough time. They also don’t wish that the two multi-starrers Bajirao Mastani and Dilwale vie with each other on 19 December. Exhibitors are impressed enough to give Bajirao Mastani an equal playtime as Dilwale after watching its promos. The spoils will be equally shared by both on day one; after that, may the better film sustain! Dilwale was initially slated for 25 December but was brought forward to face Bajirao Mastani. What is strange is that next two weeks are open with no new release in the offing.
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.
