Hindi
43rd IFFI goes live on social media with dedicated link on YouTube
PANAJI: Even as the national television network Doordarshan aired live the grandeur of the opening ceremony of the Festival on 20 November, the Information and Broadcasting Ministry came out with a new initiative by streaming live the entire programme for about three hours on YouTube.
While the Ministry had gone on YouTube just over two months earlier, it has attempted to bring to life the IFFI through its link http://www.youtube.com/user/INBMINISTRY/videos where it is also placing short promotional of various films of the festival, and will also carry interviews of important dignitaries.
The objective of launching the channel was to reach out to the young population of the country, sensitizing them about the Government’s policies and programmes. At the same time, the channel has provided a window to disseminate information on key issues and events regularly in an effective manner.
Since its launch, the channel has successfully incorporated a bouquet of programmes on the platform catering to different cross sections. The uploaded programmes include Live streaming of events, news capsules of two to three minutes duration, campaign spots, short films and documentaries, classical music, inspirational speeches, etc. The response has been overwhelming. Till date the channel has received about 25000 video views and has approximately 295 subscribers.
The channel has provided the Ministry the opportunity to integrate communication and content on a newly emerging platform. The content is regularly updated on a day to day basis through the social media cell set up for this purpose.
The 43rd IFFI is being publicized and promoted in a big way through the channel thereby giving it a better profile on the social media network.
Some of the Events proposed to be covered on a daily basis are: Interviews of Film Directors and Producers of National and International Fame; Tributes and Retrospectives of Indian Panorama; Master Classes for budding filmmakers; some sideline stories about Goan culture, heritage etc.; and Cultural Performances of Goa.
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.
