Movies
Panorama bets Rs 100 crore on Malayalam films with Nivin Pauly
MUMBAI: Panorama Studios International has struck a landmark partnership with Malayalam star and producer Nivin Pauly to back a slate of feature films with a cumulative budget of Rs 100 crore, signalling a sharper push into southern cinema.
The films will be produced by Kumar Mangat Pathak and Abhishek Pathak for Panorama Studios, alongside Nivin Pauly as producer. The multi-film slate will span genres, aiming to balance story-first narratives with mainstream appeal for Indian and overseas audiences.
Since its inception, Panorama Studios has built a reputation for marrying box-office heft with critical acclaim. Its filmography runs from Omkara to commercial hits such as Pyaar Ka Punchnama 1 and 2, Drishyam 1 and 2, Raid 1 and 2, and Shaitaan, with Drishyam 3 currently in production. The studio has garnered more than 50 major awards.
Nivin Pauly, one of Malayalam cinema’s most bankable names, is known for his range and script sensibility. He has won two Kerala State Film Awards, three Filmfare Awards South, two Kerala Film Critics Association Awards and six Siima Awards.
“Malayalam cinema has consistently set benchmarks for storytelling and performance-led films,” said Panorama Studios chairman Kumar Mangat Pathak. “Partnering with Nivin Pauly, who combines credibility with mass connect, is a natural progression as we invest in meaningful cinema at scale.”
Calling the collaboration “extremely exciting”, Nivin Pauly said Panorama’s vision and commitment to quality aligned closely with the stories he wants to tell. “Together, we aim to create films that are rooted, entertaining and impactful,” he said.
The alliance underlines Malayalam cinema’s rising national and global pull, as deeper pockets and star power converge around content-driven filmmaking.
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.
