Hindi
Eros International inks deal with Thirrupathi Brothers
MUMBAI: Eros International Media has joined hands with N Lingusamy’s Thirrupathi Brothers Media. As part of the tie-up, Eros will release two of the most anticipated films in Tamil cinema with Telugu dub namely Kamal Haasan’s Uttama Villain and Shiva Karthikeyan’s Rajini Murugan.
Uttama Villain, the first of the two films under this deal, also starring Anushka Shetty is a comedy written by Haasan and directed by Ramesh Aravind. The trailer of the film released on Pongal 2015 and the release is slated for 2 April.
Rajini Murugan, is also a comedy, starring Sivakarthikeyan and directed by Ponram, whose last venture with the actor was the hit film Varuthapadatha Valibar Sangam.
Eros International Media managing director Sunil Lulla said, “We are delighted to partner with ace director N. Lingusamy’s Thirrupathi Brothers on these exciting films with the legendary Kamal Haasan and upcoming talent like Sivakarthikeyan. The films will be high on the entertainment quotient and promise to connect with fans and audiences.”
Thirrupathi Brothers Film Media managing director Lingusamy added, “We are extremely proud to associate with Eros, the most powerful and successful name in contemporary Indian cinema to co-produce our prestigious Uttama Villain starring Kamal Hassan and Rajini Murugan starring the emerging popular hero of Tamil Cinema Sivakarthikeyan only to mark the beginning of a long and successful journey with Eros.”
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.
