Hindi
Fox Star Studios and Illuminati Films collaborate for Homi Adajanias Finding Fanny
MUMBAI: One of the leading production and distribution house, Fox Star Studios has partnered with Dinesh Vijan – Saif Ali Khan’s Illuminati films, to present Homi Adajania’s quirky comedy Finding Fanny. This ensemble film brings Deepika Padukone and Arjun Kapoor, together for the first time, ably backed by stalwarts Naseeruddin Shah, Dimple Kapadia and Pankaj Kapur.
Set in Goa, Finding Fanny is a hilarious and heartwarming bilingual film about a man’s search for his childhood love, Stefanie (Fanny) Fernandes, and how a group of dysfunctional characters go on a road trip with him to find her. The journey, riddled with a funny chain of events and life changing moments that impact everyone involved, forms the crux of the film.
Finding Fanny comes on the strong back of illuminati Films and Homi’s last outing, the super-hit film Cocktail. Producer Dinesh Vijan added, “We are excited about the way the film is shaping up. Homi has a talent for cinematic storytelling, giving us diverse stories be it a Being Cyrus or Cocktail and now we have a gem of a film in Finding Fanny. We are proud to add this wonderful, warm, quirky story to our stable. We are looking forward to partnering with Fox Star Studios, and hope to reach out to a wide audience globally.”
Fox Star Studios CEO Vijay Singh added, “Finding Fanny is a very important addition to our exciting line-up for 2014, and we are glad to have partnered with Dinesh and Saif on this film. We believe in Homi’s cinema and its ability to connect universally. We were blown away by the script and the film has lined up some of India’s most exciting talent. We are committed to releasing it across the globe.”
When asked about his third outing, Homi said, “I was offered some big “Cocktail-type” films after the success of it, but I really wanted to work on my own material and not just direct something for money. Finding Fanny is really very special to me. Naseer and Dimple are a riot to work with. Pankaj is incredible. Deepika amazes me with her constant growth as an actor and Arjun was a revelation surpassing my expectations. The performances have been selfless and fantastic. We all worked very hard but more importantly we had a blast and I promise you’ll see this on screen.”
Finding Fanny will be released worldwide on 4 July 2014.
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.
