Hindi
Reliance MediaWorks to manage Annapurna Studios’ facility
MUMBAI: Reliance ADAG’s film and entertainment services company, Reliance MediaWorks, has partnered with Annapurna Studios, the Hyderabad-based film and television studio and production house to manage and operate their studio facility.
Annapurna Studios, founded by Telugu actor Akkineni Nageswara Rao, is a leading provider of various production facilities, including sound stages, outdoor sets, editing and sound recording theaters to the Telugu entertainment industry. The 80-year-old Telugu film industry, based in Hyderabad, is the second biggest film producer in India.
Spread across 22 acres, the centrally located studio complex owned by Annapurna Studios in Hyderabad has added five new air-conditioned studios to the existing five studio complex and the facility will be a comprehensive resource for feature films, television, commercials, and music videos amongst others.
RMWL will also operate and expand Annapurna Studios’ digital post production facilities that cater to the needs of the motion picture and television commercials industry.
Through this alliance, RMWL and Annapurna aim to combine the expertise of both players in offering cutting edge infrastructure, skill sets and operating strengths to the industry.
Reliance MediaWorks CEO Anil Arjun said, “Annapurna Studios has created an ecosystem par excellence for the Telugu film industry and it is our honour to partner with them. Reliance MediaWorks has put together an experienced team of film and media services executives with a proven track record of accomplishments as operators and successful marketers and we can bring the experience, financial skills and hands-on approach that can make a difference. We are excited about the synergies and opportunities that will be created as we begin to work together and we look forward to strengthening our presence in Southern India.”
Reliance MediaWorks boasts of extensive experience in the studios and digital post production space. The company owns and operates RMW Studios which are Hollywood benchmarked studios and comprise eight sound stages spread across a seven acre area within Filmcity, Mumbai. Having worked on more than 150 films, RMWL’s digital intermediate lab is the leading 4K facility in Mumbai with real time grading capabilities.
Rao said, “This partnership evokes a shared vision for a unified film, media and entertainment industry in India. The shared strengths will enable the studio to leverage expertise and complement each other in providing world- class acilities and services to its customers”.
Annapurna Studios MD Akkineni Nagarjuna said, “I am enthusiastic about this partnership with Reliance MediaWorks. It is futuristic. The collaborative strategic approach between the two studios will drive new growth opportunities and realise the potential to ultimately transform the media and entertainment sector in India.”
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.
