Hindi
Annex between India, UK will help co-productions in cinema
NEW DELHI: Producers from the United Kingdom and India would be able to make films reflecting the diversity of culture and heritage of both the countries and enjoy national status in the two places, according to the Annex to the Indo-UK Film Co-Production signed today.
The Annex was signed by Joint Secretary (Films) in the Information and Broadcasting Ministry VB Pyarelal and Deputy British High Commissioner Creon Butler.
The Annex elaborates the various requirements for Film Co-production under the Agreement signed in December 2005 between the two countries. It also provides rules of procedure for operationalisation of the Agreement.
The Annex has been finalized after negotiation with the British Government and consultation with the Indian film industry. The aim is to ensure that benefits accrue to the co-producers of both the countries. The Annex shall come into force as soon as the parties have notified each other on the completion of their respective legal and constitutional procedures.
The co-produced films would gain better market access in some other countries also. The Indian community in the UK represents the single largest ethnic segment of the country’s population. As a sizeable percentage of the population in UK is Asian, films produced under this segment would have a ready audience.
It is expected that the cost-competitive Indian film industry including the post production sector will stand to gain from the agreement. Some of the benefits that will accrue from this agreement include shared financial risks as well as larger audience base. The pact could lead to greater use of Indian locales and their promotion abroad. For this sector, UK could also act as a gateway to many countries in the European region.
India also has similar co-production agreements with Germany, Italy, and Brazil, and agreements are also be signed shortly with some other countries including France, Canada, South Africa, Hungary, and China among others.
India already has an existing protocol on cinema with the French Government signed in 1985. The Ministry now wants to re-write the protocol/agreement according to the requirements of today.
Italy was the first country to have signed a co-production agreement with India for producing films. The purpose of this agreement was to increasingly use Italian locations for Indian movies, to increase collaboration in animation and post-production and to foster transfer of know-how in the field of old film restoration.
India and Brazil signed an Audio-Visual Co-production Agreement in June last year under which many film and television companies from Brazil would be able to work with Indian companies to outsource work in different spheres of film production under an Audio-Visual Co-production signed between the two countries.
This will include work relating to special effects, graphics and animation and producers from both countries get an opportunity to pool their creative/artistic/technical, financial and marketing resources to co-produce film and television programmes.
Under the Agreement, more Indian locales can be utilized for shooting films, thus raising the visibility of India as a shooting destination. With the liberalization of shooting guidelines for foreigners shooting films in India, there has been a marked increase in films being shot in India.
Risks also get shared and there is wider natural audience base. The post- production sector of the Indian film industry will also gain from such an agreement.
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.
