Hindi
Five Indian Films nominated for Asia Pacific Screen Awards
MUMBAI: Five Indian films have received nominations in the second Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSA). The ceremony will take place on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia on 11 November.
Among various categories Om Shanti Om has been nominated for best film, Jodhaa Akbar has been nominated for achievement in cinematography (Kiiran Deohans), Taare Zameen Par has been nominated for best children’s feature, Mahek for best children’s feature and Rajat Kapoor for best performance by an actor for The Prisoner.
Om Shanti Om will compete with Men Jeuk (Hong Kong), Tulpan (Kazakhstan, Russia, Switzerland/Poland/Germany), The Red Awn (China) and Three Monkeys (Turkey/France/Italy) for the best film award.
The APSA has announced nominees in nine Award categories representing 33 films from 17 countries and areas of the Asia-Pacific region.
The APSA is a collaboration with CNN International, Unesco and FIAPF – International Federation of Film Producers Associations. It is an international cultural initiative to acclaim films that best reflect their cultural origins and demonstrate cinematic excellence.
APSA chairman Des Power says, “The nominees were determined from more than 180 films from 43 countries. We are greatly encouraged by the response from filmmakers from Asia-Pacific in our mission to acclaim their work and promote it to an international audience. Once again, the nominees showcase the tremendous talent and creativity that exists in the burgeoning film industries of the region”.
In the run-up to the APSA, CNN International is to feature the power and reach of Asia-Pacific cinema in four half-hour Scene By Scene documentaries airing the weekends of 4 ,11, 18 October and 1 November.
The programmes hosted by Anjali Rao, feature the region’s directors, producers and stars talking about the political, religious and cultural challenges they face.
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.
