Hindi
Two Shemaroo films to showcase at 12th IFFK
MUMBAI: Two films from Shemaroo Entertainment, Manorama six feet under and the forthcoming Staying Alive (directed by Ananth Mahadevan) are being screened at the 12th International Film Festival of Kerala [IFFK].
The Kerala State Chalachitra Academy annually hosts IFFK at Thiruvananthapuram which is recognized by the International Federation of Film Archives [FIAF], thus making it part of a prestigious circle of specialized festivals.
Staying Alive starring Saurabh Shukla and the Director himself, is based on a true story of a journalist and an underworld kingpin. Both of them share a room in the intensive cardiac care at a hospital owing to heart attack. While one scoffs at death because he is seasoned as it is his third attack, the other is totally petrified on suffering his first. The film is about being grateful at the joy of just staying alive.
Staying Alive has been earlier screened at ‘Bite the Mango Festival’ at Bradford UK and at IFFK there will be two screenings of the movie. Staying Alive will be visiting lot more other prestigious festivals before the formal release of the film.
Director Ananth Mahadevan shares his thoughts, ‘Staying alive is a tribute to great cinema makers, who have inspired me to make a movie of this kind. Based on a true story, this film is absolutely an original piece of art, with no reference points anywhere. The underlying message of the film being – are all of us making our lives worth living, as we are staying alive – will certainly make a difference in the lives of our audiences’.
At a preview screening of the film, Staying Alive was reviewed as, ‘A deeply moving chamber piece . . . lucid yet sparse emotionalism of two incompatible men. Staying Alive is a film that makes you thankful for the gift of life and cinema.’
Adds Ketan Maru – Producer of ‘Manorama Six Feet Under‘ – ‘After Manorama Six Feet Under won the Best Film Award at ‘The Mahindra Indo-American Arts Council Film Festival‘ [MIAAC] at New York, there has been a lot of curiosity among audiences to watch this film. We are now certainly glad to have two screenings of Manorama Six Feet Under at IFFK‘.
The 12th IFFK 2007 is currently being held from 7th – 14th December 2007, showcasing the films of famous directors from across the globe and films of many other directors too are being screened in various sections. The jury includes ten distinguished members across the world from the film fraternity who have a tough choice to make, in order to give away the festivals six awards and one audience prize.
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.
