Hindi
No trick in the book worked on screen
MUMBAI: *The week’s major release, Mirzya, seems to have started on a wrong note in that, the posters designs as well as promos of the film did not quite manage to raise curiosity. If at all, they gave out a sort of negative vibes about the film. That the Navratri festival and the pre-Diwali period are never known to draw crowds to cinemas. Owing to these factors, the film had a very poor opening response. The reports from the early watchers only added to the problem as these went against every aspect of the film. The new romantic pair, both from the pedigree stock, failed to create the magic needed for a launch vehicle.
The film had a poor run on day one at the box office managing to put together less than Rs 2 crore with the Saturday figures dropping marginally while Sunday remained stagnant. The film collected just Rs 5.2 crore for its first weekend. That spelt disaster for the film.
*Tutak Tutak Tutiya in which Sonu Sood decided to play the hero, a super star at that, was not a very bright idea. To add to that confidence, Sonu also danced through the film instead of letting the master dancer, Prabhu Deva, do it. Also, this comic horror film provided none of the two really.
The film met with a poor response all over with its collections remaining in lakhs. It collected Rs 2.15 lakh in its opening weekend.
*M S Dhoni: The Untold Story, after an excellent weekend, could manage to sustain only at top-rung multiplexes. The film faced a major drop at single screens with some exhibitors at B Class single screen centres even losing the MGs paid. The rest of the four days could muster only a third of its opening weekend as the film collected Rs 82.6crore in its first week.
*Banjo ran out of steam at the end of its first week run as it could collect a mere Rs 10 lakh in its second week taking its two week total to Rs 7.7 crore.
*Parched collected Rs 2.5 lakh in its second week to take its two-week total to Rs 1.45 crore.
*Days of Tafree: In Class Out Of Class collected Rs 10 lakh in its second week to take its two-week tally to Rs 1.85 crore.
*Pink has remained steady in its third week with collection figures of Rs 6.4 crore taking its three-week tally to Rs 65.3 crore.
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.
