Hindi
YRF launches in-house VFX studio; Pankaj Khandpur named creative director
MUMBAI: YRF Studios has launched its independent visual effects (VFX) division called yFX.
yFX has roped in Pankaj Khandpur as creative director. Khandpur was previously with VFX company Tata Elxsi – Visual Computing Labs as creative director.
The first film under the yFX division will be Yash Raj Films’ Salman Khan – Anushka Sharma starrer Sultan.
YRF Studios vice president and Yash Raj Films finance and business affairs Akshaye Widhani said, “The Indian film industry is pushing the envelope with every film and visual effects will play a bigger part than ever before in Indian cinema. Like Hollywood films, Indian films too will become an event by itself, which means more effects and larger than life imagery. This state of the art facility will be housed in YRF Studios making YRF a fully integrated studio in every sense of the word.”
Khandpur added, “With yFX, the Indian visual effects industry finally comes of age! Visual effects will now be treated on par with all the other critical departments in filmmaking, contributing to the process from day one: from the ideation of the script itself, all the way through to final world-class execution, thanks to our experienced, skilled and passionate team of designers, supervisors and artists.
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.
