Hindi
Bond film shooting in India gets I&B nod
MUMBAI: Giving a reprieve to thousands of James Bond fans who were dejected because the producers of the next installment of the film couldn’t get permission to shoot in India, the Information & Broadcasting (I & B) ministry has given its nod to the makers to shoot across the country.
The I&B ministry has given permission to the producers to shoot the latest Bond film Bond 23 in places like Daryaganj, Sarojini Nagar market and Ansari Road in the capital. As per the makers request, they have been given permission to shoot in North Goa with the exception of the tunnel at Dudhsagar (south-eastern railway) and Zuari rail bridge over Zuari river (Konkan railways) due to security concerns.
In Ahmedabad, the producers had sought permission to shoot near the Navagam area that is close to installations like Torrent Power limited, ONGC and IOC. The ministry has asked them to ensure that permissions are taken from the railway ministry and the state government. It is said that talks with the railway ministry were on regarding these particular locales.
Bond 23 will be the latest addition to films that have already been given permission to shoot in India. Twenty-two films including the Tom Cruise-starrer Mission Impossible, Life of Pi, Singularity and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel have already got clearance to shoot in the country.
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.
