Hindi
Ghai to inaugurate multiplex in Kolkata in six months
In between helming his film institute Whistling Woods International and wielding the megaphone for his directorial comeback Kaanchi, Subhash Ghai will soon inaugurate a three-screen multiplex spread over 35,000 square feet under his brand Mukta A2 Cinemas in the City of Joy.
Coming up in the next six months at Junction Mall, Barasat, in Kolkata, this will be Mukta A2 Cinemas’ debut in West Bengal after having similar such multiplexes in Vadodara, Ahmedabad and Gulbarga. The first plex was opened in Gujarat back in July 2011.
When contacted, Nice Property director Prabhakar Kumar confirmed the news and said: “Mukta Arts has been in the distribution and exhibition business for a while now and with this chain of multiplexes, they only plan to strengthen their foothold in the industry.”
Junction Mall, Barasat, in a total mall area of 150,000 square feet, is marketed by Nice Property and is a joint venture project with North 24Parganas Zilla Parishad.
Sources said plans are afoot to invite actors the likes of Abishek Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Sonali Bendre to Kolkata for the first fifteen days to promote the plex.
Also, tickets will be economically priced, keeping in mind consumer spending behaviour in Kolkata, sources informed. “Mukta Cinemas is looking at 1,200 seats. The pricing is slightly lower than other multiplexes,” a source revealed.
It is further learnt that the company has signed an 18 year lease contract and as per the agreement, the rent will be Rs 60 per sqft.
“Even if Mukta Arts achieves 50 per cent occupancy rate, this venture would give good returns to the company,” observed a media analyst, adding that there are not many high-quality plexes in the vicinity, upping the possibility of the plex doing well in future.
Ghai’s Mukta Arts is primarily engaged in motion picture production apart from production, distribution, and exhibition of television serials and entertainment software, equipment hiring, and generation and distribution of content for the entertainment industry.
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.
