Hindi
A R Rahman roped in as BAFTA Breakthrough India ambassador
MUMBAI: The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) has announced that applications are now open for BAFTA Breakthrough India, supported by Netflix. The initiative marks BAFTA‘s first steps into India, showcasing and supporting the next generation of creative talent in film, games and television globally alongside the UK, USA and China.
It also named A R Rahman as the ambassador for BAFTA Breakthrough India 2020-21. This association with Rahman marks the continued development of creative relationships between the UK and India, enabling and supporting collaboration between the two nations and showcasing the incredible talent India has to offer across different regions on a global scale.
BAFTA Breakthrough ambassador and composer A R Rahman said: “I am happy to be working with BAFTA to discover some of the amazing talent that India has to offer in film, games and television. This is a unique opportunity for promising artists to be supported by a world-renowned organisation, to not only make connections with other talented creatives across the world but to be mentored by BAFTA winners and nominees. I am looking forward to seeing the brilliant talent chosen from India to be showcased on a global stage.”
“We are absolutely delighted to be opening Breakthrough applications in India for the first time,” BAFTA chief executive Amanda Berry OBE added. “I am also incredibly grateful for the invaluable support of our brilliant ambassador A R Rahman, an industry leader in his creative work and someone who shares our passion for identifying and nurturing new talent. He is well positioned to support the initiative, with his broad spectrum of work drawing recognition across Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu films, which will help BAFTA to appeal to a wide section of the industry.”
As part of BAFTA Breakthrough India, a jury of British and Indian industry experts will select five talents from across India to take part in the year-long mentoring and guidance program. The chosen participants will receive one-to-one mentoring, global networking opportunities, free access to BAFTA events and screenings for 12 months, and full voting BAFTA membership. The chosen talent will also connect with and learn from some of the best in the British and Indian creative industries, share their expertise with peers around the world, gain access to opportunities beyond geographical borders, and be promoted as BAFTA breakthrough artists globally.
BAFTA Breakthrough selects talent through a cross-industry jury of leading professionals, hand-picked to ensure a diverse selection of experienced voices. Jurors for the UK & US cohorts included Fiona Shaw (actress), Paapa Essiedu (actor), Edward Enninful (editor-in-chief – British Vogue), Jodie Azhar (game developer) and Kate Townsend (director) to name a few. The 2020 Jurors for Breakthrough India are still to be announced.
BAFTA Breakthrough, launched globally in May 2020 and previously known as Breakthrough Brits, has been running in the UK since 2013 and in China since 2019, but this year marks the first time the initiative is recognising talent globally across the UK, US, India and China.
This year’s BAFTA Breakthrough global participants will be celebrated and showcased together in 2021. The initiative will continue to use digital communications in the coming months to enhance cross-cultural networking across the globe.
Netflix is the official supporting partner for BAFTA Breakthrough, in the UK, USA and India, providing integral support in the global expansion.
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.
