Hindi
14th EU film fest kicks off in Delhi
MUMBAI : The ‘14th European Union Film Festival in India‘ will be inaugurated today at 6 pm at Siri Fort Auditorium II in Delhi and will go on up to 22nd April. Other cities where it will be held include Mumbai, Pune, Kozihodhe, Chennai and Jamshedpur. Entry to all shows is free of charge on “first come first served” – basis.
The film “Czech Dream” will be screened at the inaugural function, as the Czech Republic currently holds the Presidency of the European Union.
In Mumbai, Fun Cinemas will host the event and in Pune the festival will be presented in assistance with Indian National Film Archive. Kerala State Chalachitra Academy and the Corporation of Kozhikode is the co-organizer in Kozihodhe. The partner of EU in Chennai is Indo Cine Appreciation Foundation and Kalamandir in Jamshedpur.
A selection of contemporary film productions of 19 European countries will be presented. Besides promoting mutual respect and understanding, the aim of the film festival is to encourage broad international cooperation programme of cultural and commercial relations between Europe‘s and India‘s film industry.
The Film Festival is being organized by the Directorate of Film Festivals, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Government of India in collaboration with the Delegation of the European Commission to India and the Czech Embassy along with other European Union Member State Embassies and local partners.
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.
