Hindi
South African distributor releasing Khiladi 786 and Dabaang 2
MUMBAI: South Africa-based Ster-Kinekor that brings all the major movie titles from across the globe to its big screens across the South Africa,is gearing up to release two major Bollywood titles grace the big screen this December. The first film to release would be Khiladi 786 on 7 December while Salman Khan’s Dabangg 2 will release two weeks later on 21 December.
Both films boast of big names and feature music and dance that is expected from blockbuster Bollywood titles. Fans in Durban can look forward to Khiladi 786 as well as Dabangg 2 at Ster-Kinekor Gateway, while Johannesburg audiences will be able to experience all the thrills and action of Dabangg 2 at Ster-Kinekor The Zone in Rosebank.
Eros International‘s Khiladi 786 in which Akshay Kumar plays the hero Khiladi that also celebrates 12 years of the Khiladi film series. Playing the female lead opposite Kumar, in the role of Indu Tendulkar, is actress Asin Thottumkal. Mithun Chakraborty, Paresh Rawal and Himesh Reshammiya also appear in pivotal roles in Khiladi 786. The film, directed by Ashish R Mohan has been produced for HariOm Entertainment Company and HR Musik by Twinkle Khanna, Sunil Lulla and Himesh Reshammiya, who has also composed the music of the film beside being part of the cast.
With Dabangg 2, Salman Khan returns to the big screen as Chulbul Pandey in the second adventure of one of the most successful franchises of all time in Indian cinema and, one of the most anticipated Bollywood films of 2012. Starring opposite Khan in the lead role is Sonakshi Sinha.
The film also stars Prakash Raj as the negative lead while Vinod Khanna, Deepak Dobriyal and Nikitan Dheer are in supporting roles.
The movie is directed by Arbaaz Khan and produced by Khan and his wife, Malaika Arora Khan, for Arbaaz Khan Productions in association with Shree Ashtavinayak.
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.
