Hindi
First mainstream indigenous animation film hits the screen
NEW DELHI: Director and producer Anil Goyal‘s Ice ‘n’ Spicy, the country’s first mainstream ‘non-mythological’ feature-length 3-D animation film using high–tech computer hardware, has been released across 15 screens in Mumbai and Delhi on 9 August.
Ice ‘n’ Spicy has eight songs tuned by Dilip Sen. Scripted by Harvinder Makkar, the 90-minute film has voice-over by Akash Ahuja, Babla Kochhar, Siraaj Khaan, Vijahat, and Deepa. The creative visualisation is by Ritu Goyal, Parizat Saurabh, Jatin Goyal, Deepak Chetry and Manoj Kumar. The music album of the film has been released by T-Series.
The film has cost around Rs 20 million, and though initially made in Hindi, it will also be released in English for the international market.
Anil Goyal told indiantelevision.com,“This is the first animation film made in the country which has a modern storyline and is not based on mythology or folk tales. However, it has a character, Gantoo, who is inspired by Lord Ganesha. The film is a totally Indian endeavor right from conception, characterisation, animation on the computers, audio and music.”
Explaining the technology, he said that he termed the animation as 3-D because every scene had depth in it and the technology did not need the use of special glasses.
The film is the story of two characters, Icy and his friend Spicy, who meet the magical Gantoo, who has come from another planet. They have several adventures that are funny and emotional, but then they have to encounter the villain Jindaan who is out to get their Gantoo.
The film has one item song rendered by Indipop singer Vasundhra Das. Other singers are Udit Narayan, Shaan, Hariharan, Pomela Jain, Madhushree, Javed Ali and Vani Babbar.
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.
