Hindi
UFO Moviez Q1 FY23 revenues up to Rs 90.6 crore; loss down to Rs 2.5 crore
Mumbai: In-cinema advertising platform UFO Moviez reported its first quarter results for the financial year 2023. The company reported revenue of Rs 90.6 crore versus Rs 28.2 crore in the corresponding quarter last year. It saw a loss of Rs 2.5 crore versus Rs 26.7 crore in Q1 FY22.
The company reported earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) of Rs 9.8 crore compared to Rs 18.1 crore year-on-year.
While theatrical revenues are increasing due to the consistent and uninterrupted release of films by both the Hindi and regional film industries, advertisement revenues are slowly recovering due to lower government advertising spending. The corporate advertising segment has, however, shown a significant recovery.
“The steady release of movies has resulted in a fuller resumption of operations and a revival in revenues,” said UFO Moviez executive director and group CEO Rajesh Mishra. “The success of big budget movies in April’22 and May’22, provided an impetus to all revenue streams, especially the corporate advertisement revenue that has seen a substantial recovery. Whereas, the lag in government advertising spending continued to put pressure on the overall advertisement revenue. We have already turned Ebitda positive and we expect this upward trend to continue. Meanwhile, the increasing appetite of audiences to consume movies in different languages and genres will continue to benefit our theatrical revenues.
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.
