Hindi
Indian films dominate international section of MIFF
MUMBAI: Indian films bagged the top award – the Golden Conch – for best documentary in both the national and international categories – as also four other awards at the just concluded 10th Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF).
The other awards were in the Documentary, Short and Animation Films categories.
While India Untouched – Stories of a People Apart by Stalin K, based on the oppressive caste system, got the top award in the Indian section, Goddesses by Leena Manimekalai – on women’s emancipation – received the Golden Conch in the international section for films up to 60 minutes.
The awards fetched Rs 150,000 and Rs 250,00 respectively in prize money.
India Untouched also won a cash award of Rs 100,000 for best film/video of the festival for the producer, Drishti – Media, Arts and Human Rights.
Renowned Manipur filmmaker Aribam Syam Sharma received the V Shantaram Award for lifetime contribution from Kiran Shantaram, amidst a standing ovation.
The award comprises a shawl, a memento and Rs 250,000.
Poland, the US and Egypt won two awards each in the international section.
Two Polish films,One Day in People’s Poland by Maciej J Drygas and Beyond the Wall, by Vita Zelakeviciute, shared the award for Second Best Documentary up to 60 minutes duration (Silver Conch and Rs 100,000).
Both the films were produced by Drygas.
Salata Baladi (House Salad) by Nadia Kamel of Egypt got the Golden Conch and Rs 250,000 for best documentary above 60 minutes and the International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI) award (Certificate of Merit).
The two American films to win awards were Flow: for Love of Water by Irena Salina, which got the FIPRESCI award and Rs 100,000; and View from a Grain of Sand by Meena Nanji, which won the second best documentary film above 60 minutes (Silver Conch and Rs 100,000).
The other Indian film to win awards in the international category were Kramasha by Amit Dutta, which won the best fiction up to 75 minutes (Golden Conch and Rs 250,000), and the Producers‘ Award for the Film and Television Institute of India (Rs 100,000).
Ink, by director Bharani Thanikella (trophy and Rs 100,000), and Undertakers by Emannuel Quindo Palo, shared the award for second best fiction film up to 75 minutes with Belgium’s Bare Handed by Thierry Knauff (Silver Conch and Rs 100,000).
In the Indian section, the Golden Conch and Rs 150,000 also went to best fiction Manjha by Rahi Anil Barve.
She also got the award for best first film of a director (trophy and Rs 25,000).
The best animation film was Myths about You by Nandita Jain.
Other awards included the Indian Jury Award (Rs 100,000), which went to two films: I’m Very Beautiful by Shyamal Kumar Karmakar and Thousand Days and a Dream by P Baburaj and C Saratchandran.
The Indian Critics award went to Vinod Raja‘s Mahua Memoirs which also received the award for second best documentary (Silver Conch and Rs 75,000).
The Silver Conch and Rs 75,000 for the second best films went to The Lost Rainbow by Dhiraj Meshram produced by FTII (fiction up to 75 minutes), and animation film Three Little Pigs by Bhavana Vyas and Akarito Assumi.
Special Mention and Certificate of Merit was awarded to two films: Our Family by Dr K P Jayasankar and Dr Anjali Monteiro, and Raga of River Narmada by Rajendra Janglay.
The awards were given away by festival director and Films Division chief producer Kuldeep Sinha, filmmakers Shyam Benegal and Jahnu Barua, and actress Nandita Das, in a ceremony conducted by Rajeshwari Sachdev.
A total of 235 films were shown in the special packages in the festival which commenced on 3 February and was organised by the Films Division in collaboration with the Maharashtra government and the Indian Documentary Producers Association.
In addition, there were 44 films in the international competition from 16 countries, 54 films in the Indian competition, and 13 international and nine Indian films in special screenings.
Films from a total of 37 countries were screened in different sections.
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.
