Hindi
Eros strikes multiple movie syndication deals overseas
MUMBAI: In a bid to take Indian cinema to new markets, Eros International has signed syndication deals with television channels in the Middle East, Africa, Israel, Kazakhstan and Singapore.
The agreements include: a 15-film deal with Fox International for the Middle East region. These movies will be dubbed in Arabic exclusively for Fox channels. In the Middle East, Fox International broadcasts to countries like Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and the UAE.
The Indian company has also entered into a syndication deal with Hot, the Israeli cable television provider and owner of the ‘Hot Bombay‘ and ‘Hot Bollywood‘ channels. The agreement will allow Eros to syndicate over 100 of its Bollywood films over a period of one year, to these channels.
Eros has also licensed 150 films to Bollywood TV, the African pay television channel which broadcasts to: Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda, Tanzania, Guinea, Central Africa, Burundi and Rwanda. Additionally, it has also signed an agreement for 50 films with JSC Republic TV and Radio Corporation Kazakhstan, the Government owned channel of Kazakhstan.
According to Eros these agreements represent an extension of its strategy to take Indian cinema to new markets and are in addition to existing syndication agreements in Malaysia and China.
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.
