Hindi
Lionsgate in distribution deal with Narnack Records
MUMBAI: Independent film company Lionsgate continues to expand and diversify its musical repertoire, adding Grammy winner Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry to its roster in a distribution deal with independent record label Narnack Records. The announcement was made by Lionsgate Music president Jay Faires.
The deal launches with Perry‘s upcoming album Repentance, which is co-produced by Andrew W.K. and features such guest artists as Moby, Don Fleming, Chris Stein of Blondie and Brian Chippendale of Lightning Bolt.
Faires says, “Signing a deal with Narnack is another strong step for the music team as we replicate Lionsgate‘s core mission to fill underserved niches. We‘re excited to be launching this deal with the upcoming record by Lee ‘Scratch‘ Perry, who exemplifies the quality and genre-bending skills of our growing roster of musical talent.”
A&R VP Russell Ziecker says, “Our deal with Narnack will expand our publishing outreach while providing us with more firsthand resources for our film and television slots, utilizing Narnack‘s diverse, multi-genre, and independent-spirited label roster.”
Lionsgate adds that Perry was highly influential in the development and acceptance of reggae and dub music. In his studio, The Black Ark, Perry produced artists including Bob Marley & the Wailers.
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.
