Hindi
Firaaq wins best film award in Pakistan film festival
NEW DELHII: Firaaq, the first directorial venture of actress Nandita Das, has won the ‘Best feature film‘ award at the closing ceremony of the 7th Kara Film Festival – Karachi International Film Festival 2009 – in Pakistan.The closing capped 12 days of screenings and events that showcased over 140 films from over 230 films initially selected. Films from 44 countries participated in Pakistan‘s premier international film festival.
Indian filmmakers Mahesh Bhatt and Das attended the closing ceremony along with Pakistani filmmakers such as Mazhar Moin and Faseeh Bari Khan, whose film Burnes Road Ki Nilofer picked up two awards.
Firaaq is produced by Percept Picture Company and is yet to release in India.
The Festival jury cited the film for “its brutal honesty and candor” and its “optimism about generating a larger understanding for resolving conflicts and humanity itself.” It also expressly emphasized that while “many people might mistakenly believe, especially given the current state of relations between the governments of Pakistan and India, that the choice of Firaaq is an attempt by a festival based in Pakistan to embarrass India regarding its record in Gujarat”, the jury‘s “reasons for choosing Firaaq are far removed from such politicking.”
Firaaq, set over a 24-hour period after carnage that took place in Gujarat in 2002, traces the emotional journeys of ordinary people – some who were victims, some perpetrators and some who chose to watch silently. As an ensemble film, it follows multiple narratives that are at times interconnected and at times discreet; yet all are united by their spatial and emotional context.
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.
