Hindi
Amitabh Bachchan receives Padma Vibhushan amidst thunderous applause
NEW DELHI: Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan received the nation’s second highest honoour Padma Vibhushan from President Pranab Mukherjee in the presence of various dignitaries as well as his family.
Due to illness, 92-year-old veteran actor Dilip Kumar, who was also one of the Padma Vibhushan awardees, could not attend the civil investiture ceremony held at the majestic Durbar Hall of Rashtrapati Bhavan.
The 72-year old Bachchan was cheered by actor son Abhishek, daughter-in-law Aishwarya Rai, wife Jaya and daughter Shweta Nanda, her son Agastye and daughter Navya Naveli. Dressed in a black ‘bandhgala’ suit, Bachchan folded his hands in respect as he received the honour from the President to thunderous applause.
Bachchan received the Padma Shri in 1984 and the Padma Bhushan in 2001.
Vice President Hamid Ansari, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, senior Ministers, BJP patriarch L K Advani, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal were among those who were present.
The Padma Bhushan awardees included 12-time national award winning film maker Jahnu Barua.
The awards were presented in two batches, the first batch, having been presented on 30 March.
Those from the film and music industry who received the Padma Shri awards included music maestro Ravindra Jain, vocalist Tripti Mukherjee, founder of Shillong Chamber Choir Neil Herbert Nongkynrih, and South Indian film star Kota Srinivasa Rao.
The Padma Shri recepients from the field of sports included Captain of Indian women cricket team Mithali Raj, Portuguese yoga grand master Jagat Guru Amrta Suryananda Maha Raja, and Women hockey player Saba Anjum, were given Padma Shri awards.
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.
