Hindi
Multiplexes to participate in film industry’s token strike on 23 Feb
MUMBAI: Deciding to participate in a nationwide strike called by the Film Federation of India to protest against the government‘s proposal to bring the film industry under the purview of service tax, all cinema halls (single-screen and multiplexes) across the country will shut shop on 23 February.
Said multiplex owners‘ association president Deepak Asher, “All multiplexes in the country will be shut on 23 February. Not only us, single-screen theatres along with the entire film industry from production to distribution to exhibition, will be shut.”
But would a day’s token strike have any impact? “I guess no, but depending on the response we get on that day, we will think whether to go on an indefinite strike or not. All said and done, the one-day strike would definitely draw attention. People will sit up and ponder.”
Observed distributor Shyam Shroff, “ The matter being very serious, we have decided to protest. Generally, what happens is the service tax is collected from the consumer and passed on to the government. But in this case, it will pass from distributor to the exhibitor and the best part is that it should not pass to the consumer. So how are things to work out?”
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.
