Hindi
Film soon on legendary actor-politician NT Rama Rao
NEW DELHI: The legendary actor N T Rama Rao, who was also Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh in the mid-eighties and was later succeeded after his demise by his son-in-law N Chandrababu Naidu, is to be immortalized in a new Telugu film based on his life.
Titled Mahaganudu, the funds from the film will be donated for the development of the new capital of Andhra Pradesh post-bifurcation.
Director D Kumar Rajendra said: “We are adapting the life story of Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao into a film. We will make it in such a way that it does not provoke any controversies or prejudices. The actor who will play the title role will be revealed soon.”
“The revenue generated from this film will be donated to the development of the new capital of Andhra Pradesh. This is our way of contributing to the development of the state,” he added.
The film will be jointly produced by Anil Sudhakar, N.B. Chowdhary and Krishna Rao. Mahaganudu has also been written by Rajendra.
NTR, one of the pioneers of Telugu filmdom, also served as the Chief Minister of the state after he floated the Telugu Desam Party.
The late NTR is one of the pioneers of Telugu film industry and starred in 274 Telugu films, 15 Tamil films and three Hindi films.
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.
