Hindi
Films in West Asia must carry political elements: Riklis
NEW DELHI: Israeli filmmaker Eran Riklis believes that it is quite unavoidable to make films in West Asia today without some kind of political element.
“It is unavoidable to make a film that does not have some kind of political element in it, but the aim should be to make a film that people understand and leave it to them to interpret in their own way,” said Eran Riklis while addressing the audience at the ongoing Osian‘s festival.
Riklis felt it was his responsibility to bring in some elements of the political situation in the country, though there were other filmmakers who were making films that did not refer to the situation in West Asia.
Similarly, he is also attempting to make women the focal point of his films as they were the ones who suffered in the political imbroglio in Israel and Palestine.
He said that the work of a filmmaker was to promote and provoke ideas through a film and then let the viewer judge it.
Riklis admitted that both the films being screened at this festival – Lemon tree in the Asian and Arab competition and Syrian Bride in the focus on Israel – were based on true stories but he had taken cinematic liberties and added to them.
On asking about censorship in making political films in Israel, he said that there was no difficulty or censorship in making political films in Israel, but there were some problems when trying to get finance for making the films.
Meanwhile, a painting by Raja Ravi Varma depicting the British Governor General being seen off by the Maharaja of Tranvacore acquired by Osian’s in a London auction, was unveiled at the ongoing 10th Osian’s.
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.
