Hindi
Chinese fond of Indian films and television, says Chinese Minister
NEW DELHI: Chinese Assistant Minister of Culture Liu Yuzhu has said he looks forward to laying a strong foundation of cultural partnership with India as “the Chinese are great lovers of Indian films and television, art and crafts, and cuisine.”
He said Indian culture has had a very strong influence on China. “Given the fact that both countries have over a billion mobile phone users it is only natural that both cultures should connect through mutual synergies.”
Yuzhu, who was heading a large delegation from his country, was speaking at a reception given by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry here.
He invited Indian cultural stakeholders to China and also mentioned that Chinese cultural enterprises would welcome Indian markets opening up to them.
FICCI DG Arbind Prasad said, “Our two nations are both in possession of a vibrant and rich cultural heritage – we are buoyed by our indigenous wealth of visual arts, exquisite crafts, tapestries of colourful regional events based on ancient traditions of history and folklore. For FICCI, it would be of utmost importance if our two countries can come together and mutually add to our heritage and make commerce through culture first on our partnership agenda.”
The session was moderated by Teamwork Arts founder Sanjoy Roy who is also an important cultural stakeholder. He said that India and China will go furthest if they travel together. He said India is the country of focus at the forthcoming Shanghai Arts Festival.
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.
