Hindi
HC asks Jannat 2 producers to deposit Rs 1 mn in court
MUMBAI: The Bombay HC has asked producers Mahesh Bhatt and Mukesh Bhatt of Vishesh Films to deposit Rs 1 million in the court if they want to go ahead with the TV release of their film Jannat 2.
The HC also asked the producers to submit the DVD of their film to enable the judges to see for themselves whether there were any similarities between the film and a script by petitioner Kapil Chopra, which he claimed he had sent to the film‘s director Kunal Deshmukh and his 150-page script registered in 2008 by the Film Writers Association.
Commenting on Chopra‘s lawyer Rashmin Khandekar‘s contention that the script writer ought to be compensated for his efforts, the producers have denied there was any similarity between the two scripts.
When asked to comment on the matter, he promptly replied, “I can‘t say anything on this as the matter is subjudice.”
Meanwhile, the Central Board for Film Certification (CBFC) has finally given a clean chit to The Dirty Picture for telecast after nearly 100 cuts. With this, the controversial national award winning film, which had been banned from being screened on TV before 11 pm, has now got the nod for general viewing.
Sony TV had asked producers Balaji Motion Pictures to go for more cuts to ensure that the film could be telecast during prime time.
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.
