Hindi
Ajay Devgn’s international production ‘Parched’ to premiere at TIFF
MUMBAI: Ajay Devgn’s first international production Parched is all set to have its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2015.
Devgn will also be visiting Toronto to attend the world premiere of the movie.
Produced by Devgn under his USA based venture Shivalaya Entertainment, in association with Blue Waters Motion Picture, Airan Consultants, Parched is written by Leena Yadav and Supratik Sen. It is directed by Leena Yadav and stars Tannishtha Chatterjee, Radhika Apte, Surveen Chawla, Adil Hussain, Lehar Khan, Riddhi Sen, Mahesh Balraj and Chandan Anand.
Parched essays the story of four ordinary women in a rural Indian village, who begin to throw off the traditions that hold them in servitude in an inspirational drama.
Devgn says, “Parched is about the small battles that women must fight to win the big war. Films like Parched need to be made, seen, and discussed. Then maybe along the way we can correct some of the many wrongs that women have suffered since eternity. It’s gonna be the first time for me because usually I stay away from the glitz and madness of any film awards and events. I’m excited to attend TIFF because it celebrates world cinema. Where best of the world talent meet, greet and appreciate each other. We always had the belief in Leena’s vision as a writer & director. It’s very heart warming for me to see my support finally getting the appreciation it deserves.”
Parched is an international co-production between India, UK & USA. The crew boasts of Academy Award-winning cinematographer Russell Carpenter, ASC, Academy Award nominated film editor Kevin Tent, ACE, music composer Hitesh Sonik, three time Academy award and BAFTA winning sound designer Paul N.J. Ottosson, Emmy winner music editor Richard Ford and top notch technical support from Technicolor creative services, Hollywood and Sony Pictures Entertainment, Los Angeles. Parched is represented by Canada based Seville International for world sales right.
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.
