Hindi
MGM, Lakeshore enroll freshman cast for ‘Fame’
MUMBAI: US film studios Lakeshore Entertainment and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures (MGM) have announced the freshman class of Fame. This is a reinvention of the original Oscar -winning film that spawned a franchise, including hit television shows, stage shows and music.
The announcement was made jointly by Lakeshore Entertainment chairman and CEO Tom Rosenberg and MGM‘s Worldwide Motion Picture Group chairman Mary Parent.
Among those signed to Fame are Thomas Dekker, Kristy Flores, Paul Iacono and Paul McGill. As in the original 1980 film, the talented new cast comprises young, up-and-coming performers who will climb the steps of the High School for the Performing Arts to explore a wide variety of classic and contemporary artistic disciplines, including singing, acting, ballet, tap, jazz, modern dance, hip-hop, slam poetry, spoken word, traditional theater, and cinema.
Rosenberg says, “We have assembled a gifted group of actors, dancers and musicians who are just starting out and have a true affinity for the characters they’re playing. They are going through the same competition and artistic process in real-life as they strive to make a name for themselves. The original Fame premise is still vitally compelling.”
Parent says, “In many ways, the idea of pursuing a career in dance or music or acting is much more palpable now – anyone with a page on a social networking site is instantly ‘famous,’ and anyone with a digital camera is a potential filmmaker.
” The negotiation between fame and real talent is much more immediate and something with which audiences are familiar, and there’s a universal relatability to experiencing the trials and tribulations associated with pursuing one’s dream, regardless of the arena. We felt the timing was perfect to take this compelling story and update the music and dancing to make it more relevant to today‘s young adult audience”.
Caught up in the intense atmosphere of a performing arts high school in New York, the student artists in the film confront both the tantalising promise of success and the challenges of thriving in a highly competitive environment. Capturing the visceral excitement and explosive energy of young artists and performers struggling to prove their talent and find their own voice, Fame will mark the feature film directorial debut of choreographer Kevin Tancharoen.
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.
