Hindi
PVR INOX to screen Isha Mahashivaratri live in Cinemas
Mumbai: PVR INOX, India’s premier multiplex chain, is thrilled to announce its collaboration with Isha to bring the 30th year of Mahashivratri celebrations to the big screen, for the very first time. The overnight mega event will be broadcasted on 8 March from 6 pm onwards till the permissible cinema operating hours, LIVE from the Isha Yoga Center, Coimbatore. The live screening will be done on more than 50 screens across 35 cities in India. Viewers will not only have the privilege of witnessing this sacred event in the company of fellow devotees, but will also receive a specially energized Rudraksha by spiritual leader Sadhguru.
The Mahashivratri celebration at the Isha Yoga Center is a spectacle to behold, featuring explosive meditation sessions, enlightening discourses by Sadhguru, mesmerizing musical and dance performances from renowned artists such as Shankar Mahadevan, Gurdas Maan, Brodha V, and Paradox will grace the event, alongside other classical singers and dancers. Isha’s homegrown band, “Sounds of Isha,” will also perform alongside various other artists from all across India.
Mahashivratri is one of the largest and most significant among the sacred festivals of India. The festival celebrates the Grace of Shiva, who is considered the Adi Guru or the First Guru from whom the Yogic tradition originates.
“The significance of the day is that there is an upward movement of energy in the human body. So this night, we want to spend awake, aware, with our spines erect so that whatever Sadhana we are doing, there is a great assistance from nature,” explained Isha Foundation founder Sadhguru, about the importance of staying awake all night on Mahashivrartri.
PVR INOX Ltd co-CEO Gautam Dutta, expressing his profound enthusiasm, stating, “The divine festival of Mahashivratri holds unparalleled significance in Indian traditions, offering boundless possibilities for seekers of spiritual divinity. Collaborating with Isha to bring this event to the silver screen for the first time at PVR INOX cinemas for the devotees is an extremely gratifying and blessed opportunity for us. We extend a heartfelt invitation to all devotees to join us at their nearest PVR INOX cinemas and bask in the spiritual magic and make the most of this extremely auspicious festival.”
Patrons eager to partake in this divine experience can book their tickets via the PVR or INOX apps or websites by clicking on https://cutt.ly/AwMToEau
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.
