Hindi
Mountain man Nawazuddin spreads ‘Manjhi’ message via #fame
MUMBAI: Viacom18 Motion Pictures has partnered with #fame to promote its film Manjhi – The Mountain Man through a digital and social media campaign.
As the official live video partner of Manjhi, #fame created digital content for the film, which spreads its message.
The movie has seen more than 20 hours of live video content being created, which includes exclusive interviews with the film’s cast, city promotional tours and press events and customised live content around the film created by talent performing on the #fame app. #fame beamers from respective cities followed the cast throughout the promotional tour to create content and engage fans.
Apart from live beaming, #fame conceptualised an Independence Day themed video with lead actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui, which captured the larger message of Manjhi – The Mountain Man The video, ‘Happy Swantantra to you’ has already garnered more than 1.1 million views across platforms.
“As India’s No.1 live video entertainment platform, #fame is home to the country’s millenial audiences and a powerful movie like Manjhi, which has a strong message for the youth resonated well with this audience. Through #fame, the build up and excitement of Manjhi scaled up further with the promotional tours, special events and fan interactions with the cast all being captured live. Our objective is to deliver compelling live entertainment to every smartphone carrying youth,” said #fame CEO Saket Saurabh.
“It was great to be associated with #fame for the promotions of Manji- The Mountain Man. The film has received an overwhelming response through the trailers. We wanted to engage strongly with digital audiences and the partnership with #fame was a great fit for this,” added Viacom18 Motion Pictures VP marketing Rudrarup Datta.
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.
