Hindi
Sajid Nadiadwala’s production unit is like his “extended family”
MUMBAI: Sajid Nadiadwala is busy juggling between outdoor schedules of multiple films, which are being shot all around the world. With such a choc-a-bloc schedule, one cannot help but wonder, how his crew members effortlessly manage to be away from their families for days, sometimes months, at a stretch.
The producer says that the outdoor shooting schedules stretch for more than two to three months on an average. “We end up spending more time with each other than we do with our own families. This would be impossible without their dedication. They are, undoubtedly, my extended family,” says Sajid, who is also getting into direction with Salman Khan starrer Kick.
The films in his bags include: Phantom, an action thriller starring Saif Ali Khan and Katrina Kaif. The film recently finished its schedule in Beirut, Lebanon and has now commenced shooting in the snow-bound valley of Gulmarg in north Kashmir. Coincidentally, Heropanti, the film marking Tiger Shroff’s debut, is also being shot in Kashmir. It’s a ten-day shoot schedule for both, Phantom and Heropanti and they will be shot in different parts of Kashmir.
Alia Bhatt and Arjun Kapoor starrer 2 States was being shot in Delhi, Chennai and Pondicherry. The Salman Khan starrer Kick is being shot in Karjat and the production unit stays there, despite being only a few hours away from Mumbai. Imtiaz Ali’s directorial venture Highway is in the post-production stage. This film has been shot across maximum number of locations, planned for 60 days but finished in 52.
With extreme hard work and dedication of everyone involved, Nadiadwala Grandsons Entertainment is all set to present five movies spanning genres, this year.
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.
