Hindi
Virtual premier of Balak Palak on 3 Jan
MUMBAI: Marking a first for Indian cinema, UFO Moviez along with Valuable Edutainment, will pioneer the interactive ‘Virtual Premier‘ of actor-producer Ritesh Deshmukh‘s Marathi film ‘Balak Palak‘ at UFO digital theatres in five different locations – Mumbai, Thane, Nalasopara, Pune and Latur simultaneously.
The event will take place on 3 January, at Sona Gold in Borivali East, Fun Fiesta in Nalasopara, Gold Digital in Thane West, Prabhat in Pune and Big Rama theatre in Latur.
Audiences in each of these UFO digital theatres will also witness the cinegoers located in the other theatres in different cities asking questions. Deshmukh along with co-producers Uttung Hitendra Thakur and Ravi Jadhav, who is also the director of the film, music directors Vishal – Shekhar, and the children of Balak Palak, will all be stationed at the Valuable Edutainment central studio, to watch and interact with the audiences in all UFO digital theatres at the same time. The session is expected to last an hour followed by the screening of the film.
Deshmukh said, “I am overjoyed that ‘Balak Palak‘, a sensitive drama that will help parents realise how important it is to communicate transparently with your child, will create history with the first-of-its-kind Virtual Premier facilitated by UFO Moviez and Valuable Edutainment. Marathi films have created a mark throughout the world and with this unique technology, they will unite Marathi film going audiences in remote locations. I‘m confident that Balak Palak will not only break box office records but also enter many books of record with this unique feat.”
UFO Moviez India & Valuable Edutainment MD Sanjay Gaikwad added, “In a fitting tribute to the 100th year of Indian cinema, a home-grown company, UFO Moviez, will show the world how it is possible to unite film lovers in different locations of this large country with popular film personalities at the same time. UFO Moviez, which is already a world leader, will now demonstrate how its unique satellite technology will help the aam admi achieve the impossible. We are happy to provide our technology to Ritesh Deshmukh for starting a new trend in mainstream cinema with Balak Palak and hope that the film breaks box office records.”
Thakur said, “The Indian cinema is witnessing first ever virtual premier of the movie, starting from BP (Balak-Palak) we hope that we could reach maximum number of people through virtual premier and convey the message on sex education to the society. By talking about this taboo subject to the audience we feel that the communication gap between parents and children would get filled up and they will freely talk with each other on the sensitive subject like sex.”
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.
