Hindi
FFSI to bring out book on 50-yr history of film society movement
NEW DELHI: An all-India film society meet is scheduled to be held at Kolkata, the birthplace of the film society movement. This will take stock of the movement which is completing 50 years in December.
Noted filmmaker and Federation of Film Societies of India (FFSI) president Shyam Benegal, in a central executive committee meeting held recently in Mumbai, reviewed the programmes planned in all the four regions for the year-long golden jubilee celebrations. He emphasised that the campaign for campus film societies in universities and colleges must be undertaken vigorously to bring youngsters into the fold of the movement.
The doyen of Indian cinema Satyajit Ray was the founder-president of the FFSI, which was first established in Kolkata to coordinate the functioning of different film societies all over the country and help the movement bring about a better future for Indian cinema.
The central office has decided to bring out a book on the 50-year history of Film Society Movement, hold international seminars, and produce a 30-minute digital film on the Film Society Movement in India. Kiran Shantaram, VP of western region and chairman of Asian Film Foundation, Mumbai said that the foundation would sponsor the book.
The FFSI central council will meet in August at Bangalore to decide the final programme of celebrations. The Suchitra Film Society is hosting the Bangalore meeting.
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.
