Hindi
DAM 999 to release in 3D on 25 November
MUMBAI: UAE-based BizTV Network‘s upcoming film DAM 999 is slated for a nationwide release in India on 25 November.
This is the first international film produced and directed by mariner Sohan Roy, who formed BizTV network.
Shot in a single start-to-end schedule DAM 999 is a film with a social cause that describes the hazards dams can cause and creates awareness among the masses about the impending dangers of a dam collapse, if not attended on time. It is based on real life incidents bringing to life the memories of 1975 Banqiao Dam disaster in China which claimed the lives of an estimated 250,000 people.
DAM 999 is all about a corrupt mayor who builds a new dam for political gains and personal glory endangering millions of innocent lives; a mariner desperate to save his sister from evil; two not-so-young lovers challenging destiny in a bid to unite; a woman on a mission to win her family back; a little boy battling a deadly disease; a devoted wife wants to be with her husband even in death; and the astrologer who has foreseen their ominous fate – nine lives entwined by the impending disaster.
The film has 16 national and international award winning cast and crew who have contributed towards the making. The film has seasoned artistes like Rajit Kapur, Joshua Fredric Smith, Linda Arsenio, Jaala Pickering, Ashish Vidyarthi, Vinay Rai, Vimala Raman, Megha Burman, Gary Richardson and Jineet Rath among others.
The film will be released in three regional languages – Hindi, Tamil and Telugu along with English.
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.
