Hindi
Actors Rishi Kapoor and Shivaji Satam to get Mangeshkar awards
NEW DELHI: Ten personalities in the field of social awareness, music, literature and arts are to receive the annual Master Deenanath Mangeshkar Awards later this month.
Bharat Ratna and legendary singer Lata Mangeshkar told during a press conference held at her residence in Prabhakunj in Mumbai that the 25th edition of the awards will be presented by her at a function on 24 April at Shanmukhananda Hall, Mumbai.
While tabla player Zakir Hussain and classical vocalist Pandharinath Kolhapure (father of actress Padmini Kolhapure) will be given the Master Deenanath Paritoshik award for music, senior actor Rishi Kapoor and the versatile Marathi actor Shivaji Satam will get the Master Deenanath Mangeshkar (Vishesh Paritoshik) awards.
The Master Dinanath Paritoshak will be given to two journalists Anant Dixit and Prakash Bal, while the Vagvilasini Paritoshik will go to litterateur Dr Anand Yadav.
Dinesh Pedanekar and Mukta Barve will get the Mohan Wagh Puraskar for the Marathi drama ‘Chapa Kata.’
Anna Hazare gets the Master Deenanath Mangeshkar (Jeevan Gaurav) for social awareness and Miraj Vidyarthi Singh receives the Anadmayee Paritoshik foir social service.
The awards will be organised by Master Deenanath Mangeshkar Smriti Prathishthan Trust, which celebrates the Memorial day of Master Deenanath Mangeshkar every year on 24 April where legendary actors, film makers, social activists, musicians, singers, dramatists, dramas and poets are felicitated for their respective outstanding contribution in their field by presenting them with the prestigious ‘Master Deenanath Award’ and a prize of Rs one lakh each. The founders of this trust are Pandit Hridaynath Mangeshkar, Bharati Hridyanath Mangeshkar and Shriram Narayan Gogate.
This year the trust celebrates 25th anniversary of the awards, and so a two-day festival of award ceremony and concerts will be held as a tribute to the legendary theatre artiste of his times and father of the Mangeshkar’s Lata, Meena, Usha, Hridynath and Asha Bhosle.
The award ceremony on 24 April, will be followed by a solo Tabla concert by legendary Tabla player-Ustad Zakir Hussain, while the next day will see Asha Bhosle in a live Concert with her musician brother Pandit Hridaynath Mangeshkar.
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.
