Hindi
Two films shot in India nominated for Golden Globe Awards
MUMBAI: Two films that were shot in India have been nominated for Best Picture at the Golden Globe Awards.
The show is organised by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) and takes place next month at the Beverly Hilton.
‘Life of Pi‘ directed by Ang Lee and shot in Pondicherry was nominated for best picture drama among other nods. Its competition includes ‘Lincoln‘ which got the most number of nominations – seven.
Lee said, “I am deeply honored and grateful to the HFPA for these very generous nominations. Making ‘Life of Pi‘ was one of the most challenging yet rewarding experiences of my life. I am proud of the film we all made and it is wonderful to get this recognition.”
In the same category getting a much needed boost was Quentin Tarantino‘s ‘Django Unchained‘ which got five nominations along with Ben Afflecks Argo. ‘Zero dark Thirty‘ also features in the best picture list. Missing from the list, however, is ‘Beasts Of the Southern Wild‘ which was completely ignored.
‘The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel‘, which was filmed in Rajasthan, got a nomination for best picture comedy or musical. Competing in hat category is ‘Silver Lining‘s Playbook‘ and the musical ‘Les Miserables‘. What is a surprise though is that neither of those two films‘ directors David O Russell and Tom Hooper were nominated.
A surprise nomination for best picture comedy is ‘Salmon Fishing In The Yemen‘. Its two stars, Emily Blunt and Ewan McGregor, have also been nominated. ‘Moonrise Kingdom has also been nominated for best picture comedy or musical. Paul Thomas AAnderson‘s The Master got a boost with its three stars getting nominated.
But it is Lincoln that is faring the best in terms of nominations in different awards so far. Earlier it got 13 nominations from the broadcast film critics Association, an all time record. Oscar ballots have to be submitted in a few days time and it will be interesting to see how the nominations at these different awards influence voters.
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.
