Hindi
Mumbai Women’s Filmfest in December invites entries
NEW DELHI: Entries have been invited for the second edition of the Mumbai Women’s International Film Festival (MWIFF) to be held later this year with the goal of showcasing women’s talent behind the camera and giving them the spotlight they deserve.
The Festival organised by Oculus Creations will be held from 6 to 13 December. Entries have to be sent in by 30 September.
Talking about the filmfest, MWIFF director Avinash Pawar says, “This is the first biggest Women’s International Film Festival in India, through which we aim to unleash the talent of filmmakers from all over the world.”
“We also have master class and seminars by Indian Film industry professionals to provide deep-rooted knowledge about cinema to aspiring filmmakers. MWIFF will prove to be a stepping stone for filmmakers in converting their dreams into reality,” he added.
The competition will be held in various categories, which include short films, documentary films, and feature films; the non- competitive category includes world cine-busters, world panorama and world premiere.
MWIFF will comprise six days of film screenings, closing night networking parties, industry panels, post-screening discussions, celebrities, an award ceremony and a pink carpet.
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.
