Hindi
Saregama IP boosts profits despite revenue fall in first quarter
BENGALURU: India music label and movie studio Saregama India Ltd (Saregama) reported 100 times growth in consolidated profit after tax (PAT) at Rs 22.01 crore for the quarter ended 30 June 2020 (Q1 2021, quarter or period under review) as compared to the Rs 0.22 crore for the corresponding year ago quarter Q1 2020. The company’s consolidated operating revenue declined 39.2 percent y-o-y in Q1 2021 to Rs 76.49 crore from Rs 125.90 crore in Q1 2020.
Saregama says in a media release for the quarter that the primary profit driver was the increased consumption of Saregama IP: Music, Films, TV Serials on digital media by people staying at home. “There is more content getting consumed by more number of people in the post-Covid2019 era than the pre-Covid2019 one. These results have come despite Caravan sales slowing down in light of retail network being shut and no new shoots of our TV serials during this quarter.”
Saregama has mentioned the following highlights in its earnings release: (1) New Licensing deals with Facebook and Spotify (2) Two Yoodlee films released on Netflix: Chaman Bahaar and Axone. Both trended on Netflix Top 10 list says Saregama (3) License (remake, dubbing) deals for 2 Tamil TV serials in Telugu language (4) Carvaan sale re-started around mid-June and 15,000 units were sold during the quarter. There was a steep increase in the consumption of podcasts on Carvaan 2.0 during this period.
Saregama consolidated operating EBITDA for the period under review increased 122.6 percent (more than doubled) y-o-y to Rs 42.79 crore (55.9 percent of operating revenue) as compared to Rs 19.22 crore (15.3 percent of operating revenue).
Segment numbers for Q1 2021
Saregama has three segments in Music; Films and Television Serials; and Publication.
The company reported operating revenue of Rs 69.64 crore for Q1 2021 which was 36.8 percent lower y-o-y than the Rs 110.17 crore in Q1 2020. Operating result for the segment however almost tripled (increased by 198.8 percent) to Rs 38.5 crore in Q1 2021 from Rs 13 crore in Q1 2020.
Films and Television Serials segment reported 58.9 percent decline in operating revenue in Q1 2021 to Rs 5.87 crore from Rs 14.29 crore in Q1 2020. The segment’s operating loss increased in Q1 2021 to Rs 3.61 crore from an operating loss of Rs 1.17 crore in Q1 2020.
Publication segment operating revenue declined 93.2 percent to Rs 0.98 crore in Q1 2021 from Rs 14.4 crore in Q1 2020. Operating results for Q1 2021 was a higher operating loss of 3.13 crore as compared to an operating loss of Rs 3.05 crore in the corresponding year ago quarter.
Let us look at the other numbers reported by Saregama for Q1 2021
Consolidated total income (operating revenue plus other income) for Q1 2021 declined 36.1 percent y-o-y to Rs 81.86 crore from Rs 128.08 crore. Consolidated total expenses in Q1 2021 declined 53.2 percent y-o-y to Rs 59.85 crore from Rs 127.86 crore in Q1 2020.
Consolidated cost of materials consumed/Contract manufacturing charges for the quarter under review declined to by 98.8 percent to Rs 0.33 crore from Rs 26.95 crore in Q1 2020. Consolidated cost of production of Films and TV serials in Q1 2021 declined 86.7 percent y-o-y to Rs 1.79 crore from Rs 14.40 crore in Q1 2020. Consolidated employee benefits expense in Q1 2021 increased 13 percent y-o-y to Rs 17.44 crore from Rs 15.44 crore in Q1 2020.
Consolidated finance costs in Q1 2021 declined 50 percent to Rs 0.95 crore from Rs 1.90 crore. Consolidated advertisement and sales promotion costs in Q1 2021 declined 80.3 percent to Rs 6.07 crore from Rs 30.76 crore in Q1 2020. Consolidated royalty expenses in Q1 2021 fell 6.6 percent y-o-y to Rs 13.29 crore from Rs 14.23 crore in Q1 2020. Consolidated other expenses during the period under review fell 42.9 percent y-o-y to Rs 10.94 crore from Rs 19.16 crore in the corresponding year ago quarter.
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.
