Hindi
IFC shareholder revolt resolved, Bahl stays
MUMBAI: After much discussion, The Indian Film Company (IFC) and the IFC Requisition Group (IFCRG) have reached an accord wherein IFCRG has agreed to withdraw the requisition presented by one of its members, Altima India Master Fund (AIMF) seeking to have an EGM to remove Raghav Bahl and Alok Verma from the company‘s board.
Both the parties have stated that the decision to come to a consensus lay in the interests of the company shareholders.
IFCRG has also agreed to support the indefinite adjournment of the extraordinary general meeting of the company convened for 5 February 2009.
IFC had on 22 December 2008 received a requisition from Vidacos Nominees Ltd (in its capacity as nominee for, and on the instruction of, Altima India Master Fund Ltd) for the directors to convene an EGM. The IFC board tried to engage with AIMF to discuss its concerns. But AIMF indicated that it is unwilling to respond unless Bahl and Verma, an experienced corporate financier, are removed and Aashish Vyas and Atul Setia are appointed as directors.
However, IFCRG has now acknowledged in a statement that Bahl‘s contribution and the brand awareness of the Network 18 Group of companies that he controls, have made and shall continue to make important contributions to The Indian Film Company and its business.
Meanwhile, the board has agreed to appoint Atul Setia and Deepak Gupta as additional non-executive directors of the company, which will stand valid only after necessary regulatory approvals.
The board has also resolved to carry out a strategic review of the company in an attempt to look into enhancing long term shareholder value in the future. The strategic review will be overseen by Setia and Gupta along with Sanjeev Manchanda, an adviser to Network 18.
As part of the agreement, Gupta has undertaken that within three days of his and his associates ceasing to have an interest in 10 per cent or more in the company‘s issued share capital, he would resign as a director. Similarly, Setia has also given a similar undertaking where Altima ceases to have an aggregate interest in 10 per cent or more of the company‘s issued share capital.
The board and IFCRG believe that the appointment of the two new non-executive directors together with the forthcoming strategic review will help ensure the company‘s successful prospects for the future.
IFC operates as an India-focused motion picture company with outsourced production and distribution functions externally managed by the Investment Manager, with the Investment Adviser and Studio 18 playing a key role in the overall functioning of the company. Bahl is the promoter and director of the Investment Manager. The Investment Manager is owned 50 per cent by B K Media Mauritius Private Limited and 50 per cent by Viacom Inc.
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.
