Hindi
Set of Dilip Kumar photos fetch Rs 162,000 at art auction
NEW DELHI: A still from Gangavataram (1937), the first talkie by and the last film of father of Indian cinema Dadasaheb Phalke was sold at an auction here recently for Rs 102,000.
The still was part of the Vintage Indian Film Memorabilia section featuring Hindi Cinema‘s forgotten and Silent Era (Black & White) memorabilia put on auction by Osian‘s Connoisseurs of Art.
This proved to be a major landmark for the evolving film memorabilia market and also showed the interest amongst people for film mementos.
There has been a growing participation of international museums and curators from the United States, the United Kingdom, and Singapore in the bidding for vintage Indian cinematic heritage.
The other highlights in this section were the Dilip Kumar set of photographs at Rs 162,000 and Amitabh Bachchan with Rs 126,000.
The sale of vintage Indian film memorabilia was part of the art auction which fetched Rs 7,44,81,600 (90 per cent of value of the total lower estimate and 60.5 per cent of total quantity).
The recapturing of its leadership position by the Osian‘s Auction House, the impending launch of its arts, culture and cinema search engine – theosianama.com – and the forthcoming publication of 100 volumes on ‘Celebrating 100 Years of Indian Cinema‘ in collaboration with Mapin Publishing, will mark the re-emergence of Osian‘s as the pace setter in the Indian art and memorabilia market.
On the successful completion of the 1st Osianama Series Auction, Neville Tuli, Chairman, Osian‘s Group said "It is a slow and steady rebuilding process for the arts and cultural artifacts market. Without a strong Osian‘s it is very difficult for the market to achieve stability and confidence given that every area of arts and cultural infrastructure building is now linked to Osian‘s activities, from auctions to publishing & design, online search to museums, film festivals to conservation and archiving."
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.
