Hindi
IFFI celebrates 75 years of Kannada cinema
MUMBAI: The International Film Festival of India launched a retrospective of Kannada cinema today on completion of 75 years. IFFI programmed a selection of five films covering the seven decades of Kannada cinema.
From its beginning in 1934 to a full grown industry producing more than 150 films this year, the Kannada cinema industry has tread a long path creating impression on the minds of the people of Karnataka.
It is on the verge of celebrating its platinum jubilee, recapturing, reviewing and assessing its 75 years of existence in the service of the people whose cultural aspirations it has all through represented.
Films in the section are Babruvahana (Hunsur Krishnamurthi), Bhoothayyana Magga Aiyyu (Siddalingaiah), Ondaondu Kaladalli (Girish Karnad), Nagamandala (T S Nagabharna) and Dweepa (Girish Kasaravalli), an official statement said.
The early Kannada cinema relied, like their counterparts in other parts of the country, mostly on theatrical productions which themselves were heavily dependent on historical and mythological stories and forms. The social themes were the post independence phenomenon in Indian cultural scene and so are in the Kannada cinema.
The decade of the ‘50s predominantly brought in the modernity and modern social themes into Kannada cinema. The decade of sixties and seventies are considered the golden age of Kannada cinema for its representation of Kannada culture. The seventies was also the period that witnessed the birth of an alternate cinema in Kannada.
The next 20 years saw consolidation of Kannada film industry in terms of business and technology. Number of productions increased and Karnataka emerged as a film production centre with its own infrastructure of studios and labs. The Karnataka government pitched in to bring the entire industry to Karnataka from Chennai through building infrastructure and providing incentives through subsidies and awards under various categories. The 21st century saw emergence of new breed of film makers who could feel the pulse of the new generation of audiences in the changing cultural scenario of Karnataka.
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.
