Hindi
Chillar Party bags best Indian film award at ICFFI
MUMBAI/HYDERABAD: The 17th International Children Festival India (ICFFI) concluded in Hyderabad with the Andhra Pradesh governor ES Narsimhan calling upon filmmakers to treat making films for children as a corporate social responsibility and set aside budget for atleast one children‘s film every year.
While Iranian film Alafzar (Meadow) directed by Mohammad-Ali Talebi won the Golden Elephant for Best feature Film in the international section, the Nitesh Tiwari and Vikas Bahl directed Chillar Party received the Golden Elephant for the best Hindi film in the Indian section. The children‘s jury also selected the film as the best film.
The German film Vorstadkrokodile 2 (The Crocodiles Strike Back) by Christian Ditter won the Golden Elephant in the international category from the children‘s jury. Both the adult and children jury selected Nineandhalf Goodbye by Halina Dyrschka of Germany as the best film.
In the little character category Varun Haldar and Vineeta Nayak‘s Hamari Duniya received the best director award. Umesh Kulkarni won the best director award for Vihir while his film received a special mention from the children jury.
Lost in Africa by Vibeka Muasya, a collaboration between Denmark and Kenya received the best director award in the international category. The children jury also made a special mention of the film.
Nila Madhab Panda‘s I Am that already has several international laurels to its credit, received two awards; one by Sanjay Chouhan for the best screenplay for I Am Kalam and the other by actor Harsh Maya who won the best actor award for his role in the film.
The colourful closing ceremony was attended by Andhra Pradesh Information and Public Relations minister DK Aruna, Kerala Social Welfare minister MK Muneer, Children‘s Film Society (CFSI) chairperson Nandita Das and CFSI CEO Sushovan Banerjee.
Das revealed that around 175,000 children attended the week-long festival.
, that saw a participation of 152 films from 40 countries, ended on Sunday with the presentation of awards.
While the award for the Best Indian director was bagged by Umesh Kulkarni for Vihir, . Sanjay Iranian film Alafzar (Meadow) directed by Mohammad-Ali Talebi won the Golden Elephant for Best feature Film in the international category, while the German film Vorstadkrokodile 2 (The Crocodiles Strike Back) by Christian Ditter was named the Best Feature Film in the international category from the children‘s jury.
The seven-day film festival was organised by the Children‘s Film Society of India along with the Central and Andhra Pradesh governments.
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.
