Hindi
UTV announces its first production in Telugu with superstar Mahesh Babu
MUMBAI: UTV Motion Pictures has announced its first production in Telugu with superstar Mahesh Babu, to be written and directed by Koratala Siva of Mirchi film fame. The film will go on the floors in July 2014 and will be presented in association with Indira Productions.
“We are extremely delighted to commence our journey in the Telugu film industry, which is the second biggest industry in India after Hindi films, with our own production starring superstar Mahesh Babu and director Koratala Siva, a popular writer and director in Telugu with many superhit films to his credit. We believe in the power of great storytelling and have proven the same in the South with our Malayalam and Tamil slate. Now we venture into Telugu cinema with a story which will appeal to all types of audiences and are gearing up to produce the film on the large scale it deserves,” said Disney UTV South business – studios chief G. Dhananjayan.
Mahesh Babu said, “I am happy to be a part of UTV’s first Telugu Production, which is directed by Koratala Siva and presented in association with Indira Productions. Looking forward to the experience!”
“It is a privilege to write and direct my third film with Disney UTV, that too with the superstar Mahesh Babu and I am looking forward to commence the pre-production immediately after my current assignment,” said writer-director Koratala Siva.
The lead heroine, other artistes and technicians for the film are yet to be finalised.
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.
