Hindi
CFSI releases DVDs of popular Children’s films from its archives
HYDERABAD: A set of five DVDs containing three children‘s films each from the archives of the Children‘s Film Society, India, was released here today by CFSI chairperson Nandita Das.
Speaking on the occasion, she said that the CFSI has 250 films in its library including some acquired films. Films made by CFSI are also being dubbed in other Indian languages with the help of a Pune-based organisation.
CFSI CEO Sushovan Banerjee said the CFSI had restored 21 old films as part of the National Heritage Mission of the Government. 17 or 18 of these were marketable and therefore these would be brought out in DVDs.
The number of DVDs would be doubled in the next phase and all the films would be out in DVDs within two or three years. The DVDs had been brought out in collaboration with Shemaroo. They were priced at Rs 399 for three films in one DVD, Rs 299 for two films in a DVD and Rs 149 for single films in a DVD.
Reacting to a question relating to content not suitable for kids in some of the films being exhibited at the 17th International Children‘s Film Festival, Das and Banerjee said at a press meet here that children today know more about life than we had known as young people. Each screening committee had educators amongst the members and they had approved these films.
Banerjee said the aim of showing films from overseas is to let children learn about other cultures.
Das said the aim of the selection process of the films at the 17th ICFF is to ensure fun films that served as an alternative to the sordid programming that children are forced to see in the home on television whose remote is in the hands of the elders. Films that appeared to be preaching are not preferred, though all films taught something.
She said she had understood the relevance of children‘s film during her two years at the CFSI.
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.
