Hindi
UTV announces movie syndication deals over $1 mn
MUMBAI: UTV Motion Pictures has announced multiple syndication deals in various territories amounting to over $1 million. The motion pictures division of the UTV said that the deals are primarily for terrestrial TV rights and satellite rights for films in UTV‘s library.
The company has signed a deal with broadcaster Channel 4 in UK for two of its library titles – The Blue Umbrella and Kaminey for a limited period.
In Sri Lanka, UTV has licensed terrestrial television rights for four films including Tees Maar Khan and Guzaarish to a local broadcaster for a three year period. It has also signed a deal with an Indonesian distributor for terrestrial television rights for multiple films including Tees Maar Khan, Chance Pe Dance, and Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!
On the domestic front, UTV has signed a non-exclusive deal with Zoom to broadcast titles from its library including films like Jodhaa Akbar, Chance Pe Dance and Goal for a limited term.
UTV has also licensed the terrestrial television rights for India territory for seven movies including Tees Maar Khan, Guzaarish, and Chillar Party. Feeding the current demand for HD content, UTV has licensed a few titles to Star TV for its HD channels only.
UTV has also licensed SVOD rights of multiple film titles to Videocon for its D2H platform. UTV clarified that all these are short term deals. UTV has also licensed to Star HD channels to provide HD formats of leading movies for their recently launched HD channels, some of which are, Dev.D, Kaminey, Fashion, A Wednesday, Jodhaa Akbar and Life in a Metro among others.
UTV Motion Pictures Sr VP, international distribution and syndication Amrita Pandey said, “UTV has a strong and growing catalogue of popular titles, which will do well for broadcasters world over. We are continuing to monetise these titles long after their initial exploitation period.”
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.
