Hindi
Ram-Leela gets a lukewarm response, Krissh 3 continues to woo audience at BO
MUMBAI: Alexandra Cinema near Mumbai Central station had a patronage of English movie lovers who did not know English nor was it an era of dubbing English movies. To attract the audience, the cinema management gave all films it released its own version of Hindi titles. Mara Maari Chumma Chati was the title given to the 1966 movie Kiss Kiss Kill Kill (the other examples are Hurr Hurr Darwaza Khula for Horror Of Dracula; Kabhi Garam Garam Kabhi Naram Naram for Blow Hot, Blow Cold). That Mara Maari….. aptly describes Ram-Leela for that is what it is all about; there is no third dimension to the film.
The film released under protests and threats not even opening at some major centres of Gujarat on day one. While the film found an indifferent response at single screens, on the strength of its business at multiplexes, the film has collected a little over Rs 48 crore for its opening weekend. Monday, however, saw a noticeable drop to 50 per cent of its first Saturday business. It is a high priced product and this drop does not augur well for the film.
Rajjo with its unimpressive storyline went unnoticed and failed to find any takers.
Krrish 3 has done a decent second week with no real opposition to share the box office; especially in its second weekend, the collections tapering down thereafter. It collected Rs 43.3 crore taking its two week total to Rs 163.3 crore.
Satya 2 has fared poorly. The film has collected Rs 1.8 crore in its first week.
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.
