Hindi
45 films in competition for top honours at International Children’s Film Festival
MUMBAI: A total of 45 films will compete for the top award in the International Competition and 20 for the award in the Asian Panorama in the forthcoming International Children‘s Film Festival, The Golden Elephant – 15, taking place in Hyderabad next month.
Over 300 films were submitted from about 40 countries for the Festival, which is organised by the Children‘s Film Society, India, and the information and broadcasting ministry in collaboration with the state government of Andhra Pradesh. The Festival, which takes place every second year, will be held from Children‘s Day 14 November, which marks the birth anniversary of the country‘s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and will continue till 20 November.
An international jury headed by renowned short filmmaker Mike Pandey will judge the films in the International competition.
The Golden Elephant has many interesting sections such as International Competition, Asian Panorama, the Children‘s World, Retrospectives/Special screenings, Creative workshops (animation), and Special events for children. There are 26 films in the non-competitive Children‘s World and 20 films in the special screenings.
CSFI is presently headed by Nafisa Ali, a film artiste and social worker. Veteran filmmaker Kuldeep Sinha, Chief Producer of the Films Division, is Director of the Golden Elephant – 15.
The International Jury will award the following prizes for films included in the International Competition Section:
1. The Golden Elephant plus Rs 200,000 for the Best Feature Length film-live action fiction (more than 60 mins)
2. The Silver Elephant plus Rs 100,000 for the Best Feature Length film – live action fiction (more than 60 mins)
3. The Silver Elephant plus Rs100,000 for the second Best Short film – live action fiction (60 mins or less)
4. The Silver Elephant plus Rs 100,000 for the Best Animation Film (both feature length & short film)
5. The Silver Elephant plus Rs 100,000 for the Best Non-fiction film (information, research/ documentation/entertainment) film.
6. The Silver Elephant plus Rs 100,000 for the Best Director.
7. The Silver Elephant plus Rs 100,000 for best music score (either background score or songs)
8. The Silver Elephant plus Rs 100,000 to the Best Child Artist from a film in the International Competition Section.
The Children‘s Jury will award a Golden Plaque plus Rs 100,000 for the film from the International Competition Section.
The awards in the Asian Panorama section, comprising the best of films from Asia and the Asia-Pacific Region, are:
1.The Silver Elephant plus Rs 100,000 for the Best Feature Length Film in the Asian Panorama Section.
2.The Silver Elephant plus Rs 100,000 for the Best Short Film in the Asian Panorama Section.
3.The Silver Elephant plus Rs 100,000 for the Best Child Artiste from a Film in the Asian Panorama Section.
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.
