Hindi
‘9 Eleven’ wins Rising Star Award in Canada
NEW DELHI: ‘9 Eleven‘, a Bollywood feature film by America-based filmmaker of Indian origin Manan Singh Katohora, has won the 2012 Rising Star Award at the Canada International Film Festival.
The award was given at the annual festival held in Vancouver, featuring films from over 90 countries. The festival is dedicated to the creation of opportunities for the artistic interaction and exchange among independent filmmakers and the film-going community. Each year, awards are presented in all of the main categories for the top films and filmmakers, writers and actors.
Earlier last year, the film ‘9 Eleven‘ had been given an Adult certificate without any cuts by the Central Board of Film Certification in India.
The film portrays the life of 10 people who belong to different walks of life. Though each individual has achieved a measure of success in his or her life, their darkest secrets come out in the open when all of them are given some time for introspection, when they meet each other in a bizarre twist of events. They realise that their lives are inter-woven and this literally shakes up their peaceful lives.
Terrorized to the core by an unknown entity in an unfamiliar place, each individual is petrified and is hesitant to talk or take each other into confidence for one simple reason: The Fear of the Unknown
The film 9 Eleven is a fast paced thriller with undertones of terrorism. Terrorism need not be political, “ideologically” generated or xenophobic. Terrorism can also be a great motivator for conflict resolution or revenge.
Produced by Amar Durga Films in association with JMD Creations, the film stars Devasish Ray, Priya M., Jyoti Singh, Samir Stewart, Sonny Chatrath, Tejash Natali, Nikkitasha Marwaha, Vicki Yung, Homi Irani, Paul Singh, Chinmay Dhamne, Roni Mazumdar, Sonny Suri, Tanuj M., Ripneet Brar, Mandira Mehra, Nilima Mehra, Nitin Verma, , Rashmi Pradhan, Salsabil Malik, Aisha Rasul, Manvi Puri, Shalabh Agrawal, Sumeet Verma, and Vick Krishna.
Kashmera Shah features as a guest artiste in an item number composed by Music Director Jatin Pandit. The lyrics are by Sanjay Chel and the choreography is by Amaan Shabana Khan.
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.
