Hindi
Major film production houses for Mumbai film fest
MUMBAI: The Mumbai Film Mart (MFM) will be held from October 15 to 17 under the aegis of the Mumbai Film Festival.
With a special focus this year on the growing non-traditional markets for Indian films in China, Korea, Japan, Europe and Latin America, senior executives from IM Global (USA), Rapid Eye (Germany), Novo Films (France), Metropolitan (France), Top Films (CIS), Showbox (Korea), Nikkatsu (Japan), Happinet (Japan), Pioniwa (Japan) among others will attend the MFM.
Leading personalities from a majority of leading Indian production companies, broadcasters, home video, buyers, sellers, exhibitors like Yash Raj Films, Reliance Entertainment, UTV Motion Pictures, Eros International, Balaji Motion Pictures, Viacom 18 Motion Pictures, PVR Pictures, Cinemax, Shemaroo, Cinergy, Shreya Entertainment, Superfine Films, A.P International and Magna Home Video among many others will also be in attendance at the MFM.
The MFM will also provide a platform to acquire some of the outstanding films being screened at the 13th Mumbai Film Festival. Direct contact will be established with the World Sales Agents from companies like Wild Bunch, Match Factory, Films Boutique, Films Distribution, Beta Film, Elephant Eye Films, Memento Films, Norwegian Film Institute, Swedish Film Institute, Urban Distribution, Bavaria Film, Terramedia Online, Kinology, to name a few who are keen to entice Indian audiences with their line-up of stellar film titles.
Said film producer and vice president Film & TV producers Guild Mukesh Bhatt, “Mumbai Film Festival is a very important festival for one simple reason this platform is created by people who are committed to the world of entertainment. Organizations such as – Film and TV Guild of India, Exporters Association and Reliance Entertainment at the helm of the Mumbai Film Mart will create the magic of a festival with business in tow which I feel is most apt.”
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.
