Hindi
Susairaj sends notice to Ram Gopal Varma
MUMBAI: In a notice through a Court, Maria Susairaj has asked Ram Gopal Varma to show her his soon-to-be released film, Not A Love Story, before releasing it.
Susairaj suspects that the film will portray her in bad light.
Not A Love Story is said to be inspired by the Neeraj Grover murder case in which Susairaj was one of the two prime accused. The former Kannada actress‘s lawyer in a statement has said that the film is based on his client and if that is true, her consent needs to be taken.
“We have asked him to show the film before the release. If he does not, we will file a suit and the court will decide whether the movie can be released or not,” said Susairaj ‘s lawyer Sherif Sheikh.
Meanwhile, Varma has refused to show the movie.”I will not show my film to Maria as I have repeatedly said that my film is just inspired by the incident and not completely based on her. There are so many differences in the film from the real life incident,” Varma said.
“My heroine is not a South Indian actress and her fiancee is not in Navy as in real case. Also, the film is just an interpretation of what could have happened and not a reporting on what actually happened.No one was there to know what the reality is. This is not her story and I am not showing the film to her,” he added.
Starring Mahie Gill, Deepak Dobriyal and Ajay Gehi in stellar roles, the film is scheduled to release on 19 August.
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.
