Hindi
Star power fades away, collections crumble
*Writer-director Gauri Shinde followed her success of English Vinglish with Dear Zindagi. To her advantage, she had the reigning star, Shah Rukh Khan, along with an emerging star, Alia Bhatt, to boast of in the cast.
However, the theme she chose was not quite identifiable with the Indian audience, that of a young girl needing a psychiatrist for various not-so-convincing reasons. But, having a star on your roaster also has its demands. So, instead of a typical shrink, we had Khan playing himself on screen.
An enjoyable film about three fiercely independent girls living life on their own terms through the length of the film, it turns to Khan analysing Alia which, carries on what feels like indefinitely!
With a limited screen engagement (850 screens), the film found its initial audience to a limited extent over the weekend but the returning audience did not seem to have much good to say about the film. The film had an opening day of about Rs 8 crore which, considering the face value, showed a skeptical attitude from the moviegoer. The film showed some improvement over Saturday and Sunday to close its opening weekend with about Rs 30 crore.
*Moh Maya Money got a poor response at the box office.
* Force 2, a sequel to Force (2011), showed a sign of overconfidence from makers. To make a sequel to a film that did not work in the first place defies logic unless, of course, you think that the title and a muscle-flexing hero can carry the franchise through.
The film’s performance followed its poor opening day response and collections. The film collected Rs 25.9 crore in its first week.
*Tum Bin 2, a sequel to 2001 Tum Bin, met with a disastrous outcome with first week collection of Rs 3.15 crore.
*Rock On 2 managed a bare Rs 40 lakh in its second week to take its two week total to Rs 8.95 crore.
*Ae Dil Hai Mushkil collected Rs 1.75 crore in its fourth week to take its four week tally to Rs 102.45 crore.
*Shivaay collected Rs 1.6 crore in its fourth week taking its four week total to Rs 85.7 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.
