Hindi
Word of mouth improves Queen’s weekend collection
MUMBAI: Much was expected from the Madhuri- Juhi starrer Gulaab Gang but the film turned out to be just another good vs evil story where women do the stunts otherwise done by guys. The film was below average during its opening weekend and will only go down further as the week progresses. The film managed to collect Rs 7.1 crore during its first weekend as the word spread about poor content.
Total Siyapaa, starring Ali Zafar and Yami Gautam, is rejected outright and may face discontinuation from many cinemas mid-week. The film collected just about Rs 3.5 crore in its opening weekend.
Queen has been appreciated as a lighthearted fun film about a ‘ditched at the mandap’ girl who decides to explore the places alone which, she would have otherwise been to with her husband. The film has grown each day during the weekend and is expected to do steady business as the week progresses. Though the opening day collections of the film were low – with positive word of mouth – the collections doubled on Saturday and improved by a huge margin on Sunday. The film’s weekend collection stood at Rs 10.15 crore.
Shaadi Ke Side Effects bringing together the pair of Farhan Akhtar and Vidya Balan struggles through its first week to collect Rs 30.2 crore. The film has drawn much flak from the viewers.
Gunday has added about Rs 2 crore in its third week to take its four week total to Rs 78.4 crore.
Hasee Toh Phasee has collected Rs 40 lakh in its fourth week taking its four week total to Rs 35.5 crore.
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.
