Hindi
Actress Sharmila Tagore supports Irom Sharmila’s struggle against AFSPA
MUMBAI: Today is the hearing date of Sharmila’s court case against armed forces special powers act (Afspa) and as she’s summoned by the government of Manipur which claims that due to lack of funds, Irom Sharmila cannot be flown to Delhi for her court case today.
At a panel discussion event held in the city last evening, Bollywood actor Sharmila Tagore said, “I am ashamed at myself for not being aware of the cause until five years ago. I am completely supportive of the cause Irom has been fighting for over a decade now. And today is the day when Afspa completes fifty-five years of existence in India. Let us come together as a nation to express our solidarity towards her cause.”
The panel discussion was held to honour the on-going efforts of Irom Sharmila captured by author Minnie Vaid in her book ‘Iron Irom, Two Journeys’ published by Rajpal and Sons.
Author Minnie Vaid said, “I want everybody to join this cause, not only you and me but everybody to be aware of the cause, the struggle of Irom, hence her journey as a fighter in the form of a book.”
Human Rights Alert (HRA), founder and director Panelist Babloo Loitongbam, expressed that “Irom received awards and accolades from within the country and even abroad, but she did not want to become an icon. She wanted to be portrayed as an ordinary individual because she was seen as an extraordinary person that she would not be seen as a symbol of sacrifice.”
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.
