Hindi
Box Office: Rajinikanth’s ‘Kabali’ opens weak; ‘Sultan’ continues to earn big
MUMBAI: Madaari, starring Irrfan Khan and Jimmy Shergill, was expected to draw a fair number of viewers as both enjoy a good following. The film in itself did not provide anything new and came across as a mix of few recent films. Also, for a film aimed at the multiplex audience, the title, Madaari, sounded quite outlandish!
Not able to raise curiosity, the film managed a weak opening at the box office not improving thereafter to end its opening weekend with Rs 8.3 crore.
*M Cream went unnoticed.
*Kabali (Hindi-Dubbed from Tamil), gets a lot of media hype with the media not bothering about Rajinikanth films vis a vis Hindi film audience; in that, he commands no following here as such, neither in dubbed films nor he did in original Hindi films.
Also, filmmaking has moved on which includes the South Indian industry. The concepts have changed now and filmmaking has become technology oriented as special effects have become easier to incorporate. In such an event, you wonder at Kabali which sells the same Rajinikanth being sold since decades; only, here he is much diluted one thanks to age. The film has no gimmickry or gestures associated with Rajinikanth and hand to hand fights are avoided. Compare this to another south Indian film Bahubali,with its youthful star cast, larger than life canvass and special effect wizardry. No use taking viewers for granted, even Rajini fans.
Since the ticket buying moviegoer is immune to such hypes, the film had a low opening response with footfalls varying from 10/15 per cent to 25 per cent and the figures reflecting the fact. The film collected about 3 crore on day one with a negligible raise on days two and three.
The film collected Rs. 12.7 crore for its opening weekend despite an extensive release with over 1000 screens.
*Great Grand Masti fails to add much to its opening weekend figures of 7.8 crore. With the rest of the four days of the week collecting just Rs 4.7 crore to take its first week total to Rs 12.5 crore.
*With an open field and Salman as main attraction, Sultan continues to hold its own as the film collects Rs 277.96 crore at the end of its second week (16 days. The film adds another Rs 11.09 crore for its third weekend taking its 19 day total to Rs 289.05 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.
