Hindi
Akshay Kumar, Ashvini Yardi’s first regional film selected for Pune International Film Festival
MUMBAI: When actor Akshay Kumar teamed up with Ashvini Yardi to form the production house Grazing Goat Pictures, nobody had thought he would get such a good response. After taking the world by storm with their first Bollywood Film Production Oh My God (OMG), the two have embarked on a journey of creating milestones in the entertainment industry with their regional ventures, 72 Miles Ek Pravas, a critically acclaimed Marathi regional film, and Bhaji in Problem, a Punjabi regional film which has garnered admiration internationally.
72 Miles Ek Pravas was the duo’s debut into regional films and has received positive feedback from international audiences when it was shortlisted at the celebrated London Indian Film Festival. Grazing Goat Pictures has now etched another feather in its hat with the film having its second reputable screening at the illustrious 12th Pune International Film Festival (PIFF).
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Of the 500 entries in the international feature competition section for PIFF, 14 films have been shortlisted. Out of 35 entries in the Marathi feature competition, only seven movies have been selected, one of which being 72 Miles Ek Pravas, alongside national award-winning filmmaker Nagraj Manjule’s Fandry, Aditya Sarpotdar’s Narbachiwadi – produced by Film Farm, Laxman Utekar’s Tapaal, Sumitra Bhave and Sunil Sukhtankar’s Astu, and Rege by Abhijit Panse.
Other categories at the festival include, World Competition, Animation, Live Action, Global Cinema 73, Country Focus, Retrospective, Indian Cinema Today, Legends We Remember, Tribute, Special Screening: NFDC and Gems from NFAI.
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.
