Hindi
Disney India and Anil Kapoor team up to produce ‘Khoobsurat’
MUMBAI: The Walt Disney Studios has announced its next film ‘Khoobsurat’, a wholesome family entertainer in association with actor-producer Anil Kapoor and producer Rhea Kapoor. The film is being directed by writer and an ace ad-film director Shashank Ghosh and will star Sonam Kapoor in the lead role.
The film has great ensemble cast which includes Kirron Kher, Ratna Pathak Shah and Amir Raza Hussain. The film narrates the story of Mili (Sonam Kapoor), an exuberant, vivacious and fun girl, who turns the lives of a royal family upside down.
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For a long time now we were looking for a script with Disney’s values and we’re happy to have found that in ‘Khoobsurat’. A delightful film, I believe that ‘Khoobsurat’ is entertainment with a heart. We are also looking forward to working with Anil Kapoor Film Company on this lovely film,” said Disney UTV senior creative director – studios Rucha Pathak.
“We are so excited to bring you ‘Khoobsurat’ with Disney India. Disney always stood for wholesome and heartwarming entertainment and we look forward to creating that with this film as well. Shashank’s take on the film is unexpected, colourful and fun everything you find in your favourite Disney movie!” added producer Rhea Kapoor.
The film went on the floors recently in Bikaner, Rajasthan and will hit the screens by mid-2014.
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.
