Hindi
Berlin Festival: Amar Kaushik’s ‘Aaba’wows audience
MUMBAI: Indian filmmakers never cease to amaze the global audience with their storytelling and filmmaking skills. As the Berlin Film Festival drew to a close on Saturday, Indians had a reason to rejoice. Debut filmmaker Amar Kaushik’s short film, Aaba bagged the prestigious award at the 67th Berlin International Film Festival 2017. The unconventional love story won Special Prize of the Generation K Plus International Jury for the Best Short Film of the year.
The film was premiered in the Generation Kplus competition on 11, 15, 16 and 19 February 2017.
Aaba is the brainchild of Amar Kaushik, who has gone full circle in life before penning down this moving tale about a man on the edge of his death bed. Produced by Raj Kumar Gupta and Mitul Diskshit and co produced by Onir and Alison Welly, the film was shot in Apatani language in Ziro district of the picturesque valley of Arunachal Pradesh, with a cast comprising locals of the state. The story revolves around an orphan girl who comes across the news of her grandfather reaching the terminal stage of lung cancer. As the grandfather (Aaba) starts counting his days, the family faces unexpected turns.
Kaushik said, “Aaba is my first film as a director and the project is very close to my heart. Being awarded at the Berlin Film Festival for Aaba has given me moments that I will cherish all throughout my life. This award is for my entire team without whom, this would not have been possible. Special thanks to my mother for sharing such a wonderful story with me and to all my producers for placing their trust in me.”
The producers were confident that the heart-rending story will strike a chord with the audience. From the locations, situations, people and expressions, Amar has put his best foot forward to replicate his imagination into this film. The confidence that Raj, Onir and Mitul had in ‘Aaba’ has clearly well paid off, as the premiere of the film at the 67th Berlin International Film Festival received amazing response, followed by the award on Saturday evening.
Commenting on Aaba’s success at Berlinale, producer Raj Kumar Gupta, said, “I feel very proud and am elated that our film has won at such a prestigious festival. It was a script that had moved me and I decided to produce it along with my friend, Mitul Dikshit. Congratulations to each and every team member who made this film happen.”
Born in 1983 in Uttar Pradesh, India, Amar Kaushik grew up in Kanpur with his grandparents and the north-eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh, where his father worked in the government’s forest department. He completed his graduation in Science with an aim to join the Indian Air Force, only to slowly realize that it wasn’t his real calling.
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.
