Hindi
Saga Music ventures into film distribution
MUMBAI: Expanding its footprint in Bollywood, music distribution company Saga Music has forayed into overseas film distribution with the acquisition of exclusive worldwide (excluding India) theatrical rights for K Sera Sera Productions’ comedy film Life Ki Toh Lag Gayi.
Saga Music has also won non-exclusive rights of the film for India and physical and digital rights for distribution of the music worldwide, including India.
Said Saga Music business head Alipt Bhatia, “Over the years, we’ve created an impressive catalogue of film and non-film music titles in India. This deal with K Sera Sera for the film Life Ki Toh Lag Gayi is a landmark for Saga Music, signifying two important firsts – entry into the business of movie distribution and foray into overseas music distribution. It strengthens our position in Bollywood, where we have had stridden along with some interesting projects lately.”
Averred K Sera Sera Productions COO Bharati Daga, “We are coming up with a comic drama Life Ki Toh Lag Gayi, which knits together intriguing stories of four individuals from different backgrounds. The music composition of the film is refreshing, much like its plot, with hummable lyrics, catchy beats and powerful singing that attempts to keep pace with the mood of the film.
Saga Music, which has earlier also been part of offbeat movie projects as a music distributor, will distribute the movie overseas and also the music album to listeners in more than 135 countries. We have been also been awarded non-exclusive rights for India.”
Life Ki Toh Lag Gayi, starring Pradhuman Singh, Kay Kay Menon, Manu Rishi, Ranvir Shorey and Neha Bhasin in lead roles, is the directorial debut of Rakesh Mehta.
The film will simultaneously be released in India and abroad on 20 April.
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.
