Hindi
British-based Human Rights activist takes objections to torture scenes in ‘Dabangg2’
NEW DELHI: Human Rights ambassador William Nicholas Gomes has written to the Chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission in Delhi asking him to act against Arbaaz Khan for showing scenes of torture and ill-treatment in ‘Dabangg2’.
Gomes, who is Bangladeshi journalist currently a visiting fellow at Centre for Applied Human Rights in University of York, UK, has said that torture is practiced in India as a routine and accepted as a means for investigation. Torture is not criminalised in law as a separate or special offence, and even an act of torture, duly proved, does not require the perpetrator to pay compensation to the victim. More than that “Right against torture” is not a fundamental right and also there is no specific law concerning witness protection in India.
He says: "I believe this will encourage people to lose faith in the rule of law and criminal justice system and raise wider public support in favour of Torture and ill treatment in the custody."
He says that the UN Human Rights Committee as early as 1997 had expressed its concern about the widespread use of torture by the law enforcement agencies in India. Similar concerns were expressed by the Committee on Elimination of Racial Discrimination in 2007 and the Committee on Economic Social and Cultural Rights in 2008.
He has, therefore, asked the Chairman to direct Arbaaz Khan to delete these scenes from the film, which was released last Friday.
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.
