Hindi
Yash Chopra named for highest French distinction
NEW DELHI: Filmmaker Yash Chopra has been named for the award of Officier de la Legion d’Honneur (Officer of the Legion of Honour) by the French Government.
The filmmaker, entrepreneur, producer, and director will be presented the honour during an official ceremony at the French Embassy in New Delhi, hosted by French ambassador Jérôme Bonnafont. The ceremony will be held on 5 July 2008.
“France has a tradition of supporting artists from all over the world. Bestowing the insignia of Officer of the Legion of Honour on Chopra is a recognition of his international ‘artistic‘ career, and his notable efforts in the promotion of cultural exchanges and Indian cinema in the world,” said Bonnafont.
With a career of 50 years with the film industry, Yash Chopra has been both directly and indirectly associated with approximately 40 films. His talent enabled him to build Yash Raj Film Studios, one of the biggest filmmaking banners in India.
Fascinated by French cinema, Chopra is well known and respected among the French cinema industry. Most of his films have been released in French cinema halls as well as in video format.
Younger brother of B R Chopra and father of Aditya Chopra, Yash Chopra has carved a niche for himself in the field of romantic films with successes like Veer-Zaara, Dil To Pagal Hai,
Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge, Kabhi Kabhi, Lamhe, Chandni, and Silsila.
The “Légion d‘Honneur” (Legion of Honour) is the highest distinction that can be conferred by the French Republic on a French citizen as well as on a foreigner. The Order of the Legion of Honour was instituted in 1802 by Napoléon Bonaparte.
Some famous personalities who have been awarded this honorary title include Steven Spielberg and Gérard Depardieu. In India, the recipients of this honour include late Satyajit Ray, Lata Mangeshkar and Amitabh Bachchan.
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.
