Hindi
Amitabh Bachchan and Sridevi voted most admired celebrities
MUMBAI: With 43 per cent votes in the ‘Vuclip Icons of the Year 2012’ mobile survey, Amitabh Bachchan has been voted as the most admired celebrity along with Sridevi who left behind the likes of Kareena Kapoor, Sonakshi Sinha and Vidya Balan with 33 per cent votes.
"I am humbled to see the overwhelming response from my fans. I would like to take this opportunity to thank them once again for their love, blessings and unstinted support towards me and my movies. Whatever I have achieved in life is because of the love and support of my fans," averred Sridevi in a statement.
Aditya Chopra was chosen as the most admired Bollywood filmmaker.
"These findings reflect the opinions and expectations of a hundred thousand Indians on whom they view as an ideal leader. Being the most admired icon means more than just being successful," said Vuclip director India Business Nikhil Naik.
Among the most admired Bollywood composers, A.R. Rahman emerged victorious with 70 per cent votes while Sonu Nigam bagged the title of the most admired male playback singer.
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.
