Movies
PVR Inox marks Independence Day with 18 new screens in Mumbai and Bengaluru
MUMBAI: PVR Inox has turned Independence Day into a box office bonanza with the launch of 18 state-of-the-art screens across Mumbai and Bengaluru. The country’s largest cinema exhibitor unveiled a 10-screen megaplex at Sky City Mall in Borivali East, Mumbai, and an eight-screen flagship at Mahindra Millennium Mall in Bengaluru.
Timed to coincide with the releases of Coolie and War 2, the two properties showcase the exhibitor’s boldest push yet into experience-driven entertainment. The Borivali megaplex spans multiple levels and features premium formats including Insignia, Imax with Laser and 4DX, with Instagram-ready foyers and lounge spaces pitched squarely at younger audiences.
Bengaluru’s new multiplex promises even more experimentation: India’s first dine-in auditorium restaurant, an upgraded “Kiddles 2.0” cinema for children, Club Sapphire recliner halls, and VR/AR gaming zones. AI-enabled crowd-flow systems add a tech edge to the glitzy design.
PVR Inox managing director Ajay Bijli said the new cinemas celebrate “the freedom to experience stories in spaces that inspire, energise, and connect.”
Executive director Sanjeev Kumar Bijli called the simultaneous 18-screen launch the firm’s “boldest step yet” in reimagining cinema as a multi-sensory destination.
With 1,763 screens across 355 properties in 111 cities, PVR Inox continues to dominate Indian film exhibition. By positioning its latest properties as lifestyle hubs as much as theatres, it is betting that movie-going can be turned into a festival every weekend.
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.
