Hindi
KriArj gets into film acquisition & distribution, hires veteran Girish Johar
MUBAI: After the success of Rustom, Girish Johar has joined KriArj Entertainment, who will be leading its foray into film acquisition for the Indian & overseas markets.
This association will fully equip team KriArj to not only monetise its own films but will also give them the strength to provide marketing & distribution services to other independent film makers. Additionally, KriArj plans to acquire big films for not only their pan-India distribution but also for the overseas territories.
A graduate in Economic Honors and an MBA in Marketing and I.T, Girish Johar has worked with leading players like Balaji Motion Pictures, Sony, UTV Disney, PVR & Zee Studios, and has immense experience in marketing, production, exhibition and global distribution of films. During his tenure, he has defined the business and market for films releasing in various languages – Hindi, English, Bengali, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu and Marathi. Johar, a young veteran, has an experience of around 20 years in this field and was involved in more than 140 films, in various capacities. Jodhaa Akbar, DevD, A Wednesday, Ragini MMS, The Dirty Picture, Jazbaa, Rustom & many more form part of his repertoire within the industry.
KriArj has not only taken a strong foothold, within a very short span of time, but have also chalked out major plans for their foray into films acquisition aggressively.
Fresh from the success of Rustom and the much awaited Toilet-Ek Prem Katha, which is a summer 2017 release with Viacom18, KriArj has announced their association with John Abraham Entertainment for PARMANU The Story of Pokhran with Zee Studios & Kyta Productions , Clean Slate Films PARI (Anushka Sharma’s production banner), Anees Bazmi’s next with TSeries, Fanney Khan starring Anil Kapoor & Aishwarya Rai of a Rakeysh Om Prakash Mehra production and also Vishal Bhardwaj’s production. They are also in the final stages for locking other prestigious projects with leading stars, details of which will be announced shortly.
Confirms Johar: “Films are made with lot of passion, energy & commitment, which I feel, am very lucky to have found in Prernaa Arora & Arjun N. Kapoor, as in their inherent DNAs! Super charged up, at KriArj Entertainment, to make good & economically viable content, not only in Hindi but regional languages too and not only for the BIG screen but Digital too.”
Says, KriArj chairman Virindrra Arora: “I am confident that Girish Johar’s passion in movies & his experience in business of movies will lead us through to our next stage in expansion. His leadership qualities and strong business acumen is utmost we are confident of. We, all at team KriArj, will not only fuel & streamline our present projects but also our build for our major expansion plans”
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.
