Hindi
‘PK’ storms the Box Office
MUMBAI: With one of the biggest and widespread releases across all the available screens in India backed by a huge hype in the media with box office wizard of ultimate universal entertainers, Raju Hirani, with his 3 Idiots star Aamir Khan, PK falls short of storming the box office on day one as was expected by the trade. The severe cold in North and many other parts of the country affected morning shows starting as early as 9 am and last show playing at 11.40 pm.
Kids and youngsters flocked the cinemas to make the Saturday a bit better with the figures improving by about 12 per cent which was expected looking at the favourable critic reports and the film’s kids oriented first half. The trade pundits were generous to predict anything from Rs 135 to Rs 150 crore weekends but that was not to be. However, the film had a roaring Sunday business (Rs 36 crore) which helped it put together Rs 89.5 crore for the weekend. It has an open week ahead and Christmas holidays starting in a day to enjoy a lucrative run.
Main Aur Mr Right has collected a poor Rs 30 lakh for its first week. Action Jackson despite its poor content has managed to add another Rs 12.1 crore in its second week to take its two week total to Rs 58.35 crore.
Badlapur Boys has collected Rs 90 lakh in its first week; very poor. Bhopal: A Prayer For Rain has collected Rs 22 lakh in its second week to take its two week total to Rs 1.47 crore.
Zid has collected Rs 15 lakh in third week to take its three week total to Rs 6.4 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.
