Hindi
Sequels’ collections fall flat
MUMBAI: The week saw two releases, both sequels. Force 2, a sequel to Force (2011) with John Abraham, a narcotics department cop going on an international assignment, where it was almost as if the action director was in charge. Tum Bin 2, a sequel to Tum Bin (2001) which saw a fair success, thanks to its musical score, was more like a remake of the same film rather than a sequel, albeit with inferior music.
Both took the audience for granted and paid heavily.
*Indian films have followed a certain formula when one said the film has ‘something for everybody’ like romance, music, comedy and drama. Action was incidental. In a frenzy to copy fast paced Hollywood films, where much of the enhancement coming from special effects, as in little to do with on the sets filming and more to do with on the table filmmaking, the films emerge one dimensional. Force 2 is an extreme example. It sheds all that is formula and vends only action. Actions sans emotional backing falls flat and that is what seems to have happened to Force 2.
The film had an average opening of about Rs 5.5 crore with no appreciation as the film has nothing to appreciate, it ended its opening weekend with Rs 18.75 crore.
*Tum Bin 2, coming as it does after 15 years since its first version, palms off the same story it did earlier. Right, the generation has changed but so have tastes. Also, at 2 hours 21 minute of running time and new faces to carry it through, was asking for too much. While the earlier version had a music to relish, this one lacks in this department.
The film opened to very poor response as the first day figures at the box office being in lakhs, it failed to show much improvement over the weekend to end its first weekend with Rs 2.4 crore.
*Rock On 2, a sequel to Rock On (2008) was a muddled film idea. Forgetting to keep up with its title and pack some music to hum, it peddled a convoluted story with multiple threads failing to tie it together in the end. Meeting with poor opening and negative word of mouth, it ended its first week with a disastrous Rs 8.45 crore.
*Chaar Sahibzaade (3-D: Animation) rates in total loss category.
*Dongri Ka Raja spelt disaster with about Rs 30 lakh for its opening week.
*Ae Dil Hai Mushkil added about Rs 4.1 crore in its third week taking its three week total to Rs 100.7 crore.
*Shivaay has added Rs 2.6 crore in its third week to take its three week tally to Rs 84.1 crore.
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.
