Hindi
Cultural Bridge Panel at DIFF
MUMBAI: A panel of distinguished guests will gather on 14 December to participate in the Cultural Bridge Panel, a signature event of the Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF). The Cultural Brigade Panel was founded on the principles exemplified in the DIFF credo, ‘Bridging Cultures, Meeting Minds.’
The Panel, now in its second year, is a forum for the discussion of issues related to cultural understanding and dialogue, and uses cinema as a tool for world peace.
World-renowned author Paulo Coelho will present the keynote lecture at the event. The panelists will include actor-producer-activist Danny Glover who is a recipient of the 2007 Lifetime Achievement Award; writer, actor and debut director Rayda Jacobs, and Al Arabia journalist Gisele Khoury. Cameron Baily, Canadian journalist-broadcaster and senior programmer of the Toronto International Film Festival, will moderate the evening.
DIFF Chairman, Abdulhamid Juma said, “The Cultural Bridge Panel is an iconic event for DIFF. For the panel’s second edition, we have invited a rich assembly of guests with very interesting and diverse backgrounds. This meeting of minds will offer DIFF audiences a truly unique festival experience. We welcome one and all to hear and participate in these important discussions.”
Last year’s panel was moderated by Riz Khan of Al Jazeera International, director Oliver Stone, writer-director Julia Bacha, filmmaker Maji-da Abdi, Egyptian film legend Mohammed Khan and UTV founder-CEO Ronnie Screwvala.
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.
