Hindi
‘Bhopal: A Prayer for Rain’ wows American audiences
MUMBAI: Bhopal: A Prayer for Rain, the social thriller scripted around the Bhopal gas tragedy of 1984, has opened to rave reviews in American theatres. Directed by Ravi Kumar and produced by Sahara Movie Studios and Rising Star Entertainment, the film has found an emotional resonance with audiences and critics alike.
Martin Tsai of the Los Angeles Times calls the film “a revolutionary cautionary tale” applauding how “Kumar vividly recreates the Bhopal disaster.”
Gurinder Chadha, director of much-loved films like Bend It Like Beckham, calls Bhopal: A Prayer for Rain “outstanding, a must see film!” Kerry Kennedy, niece of former US President John F Kennedy, tweeted: “Saw Bhopal starring Martin Sheen tonight… powerful film must see for all interested in business and human rights.” Naomi Canton of Asia House called the movie “better than Slumdog Millionaire and 12 Years A Slave” while Liza Forman of Financial Times London wrote that Bhopal is “a story that needed to be told.”
Sheen, who plays Union Carbide CEO Warren Anderson in the film says: “When I was invited to participate in the film about the Bhopal incident I felt compelled to accept. And the response to the film here reinforces the faith I had in the subject. It has been 30 years since the tragedy but it is as relevant as ever.”
Reacting to the overwhelming response to the film in the US, Sahara Movie Studios producer Seemanto Roy said: “We are very happy with the way the film has been received in America and now hope that Indian audiences take to the film and the youth becomes aware of the mistakes that were made in the past.”
Bhopal: A Prayer for Rain, produced by Sahara Movie Studios and Rising Star Entertainment will release in India on 5 December 2014.
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.
