Hindi
UN video spot on human trafficking to precede ‘Welcome’ screening
NEW DELHI: A video spot on the crime of human trafficking in India, One Life, No Price is to precede every show of the Akshay Kumar-Katrina Kaif starrer Welcome.
In addition, Feroz Khan, Anil Kapoor, Nana Patekar, Akshay Kumar and Katrina Kaif are recording messages separately in support of the cause.
The spot has been commissioned by The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Regional Office for South Asia.
The two-minute spot will bring the issue squarely into the open. The spot aims to sensitize millions of movie-goers to this form of modern-day slavery and galvanize action to prevent and combat human trafficking by civil society and law enforcement partners.
The Movie Welcome being released on 21 December is produced by Firoz A. Nadiadwala of Base Industries Group, Mumbai, India who earlier produced Akshay Kumar starrer Hera Pheri. It showcases major Indian movie stars such as Feroz Khan, Anil Kapoor, Nana Patekar, Akshay Kumar, Katrina Kaif, Paresh Rawal and Mallika Sherawat.
UNODC’s partnership with the Indian Film Industry is part of the its awareness-raising strategy under UN.GIFT, an initiative launched in March 2007 to provide a framework for action by governments, business, academia, civil society and the media in the fight against human trafficking.
UNODC has also enlisted the support of Bollywood greats such as Amitabh Bachhan, Preity Zinta and John Abraham for the making of public service announcements for UN.GIFT.
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.
