Hindi
Ultra Media lights up IFFI carnival with a Guru Dutt showcase
GOA: Ultra Media & Entertainment Group turned heads at the IFFI 2025 carnival parade with a flamboyant tableau honouring the cinematic genius of Guru Dutt and India’s enduring love affair with the big screen. As the festival burst into colour on the streets of Goa, Ultra’s float stole the show with a visual mash-up of vintage artistry and modern streaming clout.
The festival opened with governor Pusapati Ashok Gajapathi Raju and chief minister Pramod Sawant watering a Tulsi plant, a symbolic nod to sustainability and cultural continuity. Ultra followed that cue with a sweeping recreation of classics such as Pyaasa, Chaudhvin Ka Chand, Kagaz Ke Phool and Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam, marking 100 years of Guru Dutt with brooding shadows, poetic mise-en-scène and unmistakable romantic melancholy.
Then came the power pivot. Digital screens and bold graphics charted Ultra’s leap from VHS and DVDs to a multi OTT play: Ultra Play for Hindi cinema and originals, Ultra Jhakaas for Marathi content, Ultra Gaane for music and more platforms loading soon. The message was unmistakable: archiving the past is not enough as streaming is the new home for India’s vast film legacy.
Chairman and chief executive Sushilkumar Agrawal said the tribute underlined Ultra’s mission to preserve cinematic memory while embracing new formats. Chief operating officer Rajat Agrawal said India’s diverse audiences want stories rooted in culture and authenticity and Ultra intends to deliver them across languages and screens.
Delegates and cinephiles cheered the nostalgia meets new tech spectacle. For a parade built on spectacle, Ultra’s float delivered a reminder: the future of Indian cinema still draws its power from the light and shadows of its past and this show has only just begun.
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.
