Hindi
Films development: India & Portugal to work out co-production pact
NEW DELHI: India and Portugal have agreed to work out modalities for a co-production agreement in the Film Sector in a time-bound manner keeping in mind the legal aspects of such an agreement.
A possibility of a Memorandum of Understanding between the public broadcasters of both countries to share best practices and seek cooperation in technical and content related matters was also discussed.
Minister of State for Information & Broadcasting Rajyavardhan Rathore at a meeting with Portugal Culture Minister Luis Filipe Castro Mendes today apprised the Portuguese Minister on the initiatives taken by MIB to provide Single Window clearances for Foreign Film Producers in the country through the Film Facilitation Office. He also highlighted the prestigious National Film Heritage Mission of the Government to digitise, restore, and preserve the rich filmic heritage of the Country.
(India already has such audio-visual agreements with several countries including France, Canada, New Zealand, Brazil. germany, Italy and the United Kingdom.)
He also told the Portuguese Minister about the Indian Instute of Mass Communications and Film and Television Institute of India as the premier educational institutes in the field of Journalism and Film Production respectively in the country. The Ministers discussed the possibility of Student Exchange programmes between educational institutions of both the countries and expressed interest for possible co-operation in the areas of information and communication technology and Start-ups.
The scheduled meeting of the Portuguese Prime Minister with the film fraternity at Goa on 12 January 2017 organized by FICCI was also discussed.
The Ministers expressed interest in sharing of experiences and best practices in Social Media to enhance the outreach.
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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.
