Hindi
Satellite rights, box office drives Eros’ Q1 net up 45%
MUMBAI: Strong box office collections helped Indian film production and distribution company Eros International Media to report a 45 per cent increase in net profit in the first quarter ended 30 June 2012.
Eros’ net profit in the first quarter was Rs 314.10 million, up from Rs 217 million a year ago.
The company said its total income rose 60 per cent to Rs 2.59 billion in the first quarter from Rs 1.62 billion a year earlier on strong theatrical revenue growth driven by robust theatrical pre-sales and box office performance of Housefull 2, Teri Meri Kahaani, Vicky Donor and Ferrari ki Sawaari.
Eros’s operating profit increased 42 per cent to Rs 523 million during the first quarter of 2012-13 from Rs 369 million a year earlier.
During the quarter, the company released five Hindi language films and 18 Tamil and other Indian language films. Strong demand for satellite rights for the films also drove revenue growth. As part of the pre-sales strategy, Eros has signed a licensing agreement with Viacom18 Media. Accordingly, Viacom18’s Colors television channel will exclusively telecast Cocktail, Shirin Farhad Ki Toh Nikal Padi, Khiladi and catalogue films.
Eros International Media MD Sunil Lulla said, “We are once again proud to have picked a fine slate of films such as Housefull 2, Ferrari ki Sawaari and Vicky Donor which have not only performed well at the box office but also been successfully monetised across television and digital platforms.”
“We have continued to optimise our de-risking strategy with the combination of pre-sales and self distribution to give us consistent cash flow and provide visibility of revenues. We are especially encouraged by the box office success of a modest budget film like Vick Donor which demonstrated potential for smaller films among a growing multiplex audience and widening the appeal of our films.”
Films slated for release by Eros over the next two years include Chakravyuh by Prakash Jha (starring Arjun Rampal, Abhay deol), Attacks of 26/11 by Ram Gopal Varma, Go Goa Gone (starring Saif Ali Khan), Tanu Weds Manu Season 2, Namak starring Shahid Kapoor and directed by Prabhu Deva and Sarkar 3 by Ram Gopal Varma, starring Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan.
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.
