Hindi
Copyright challenges with globalisation of the Indian film industry
NEW DELHI: Media lawyers Jamshed Mistry and Suneera Madhok have said categorically that copyright belongs to the filmmaker by right, simply because he or she has created a piece of art – film – and the right was inviolate.
It is when these rights are transferred that copyright issues come to the fore. Unless sold outright (not advisable under any circumstances) all transfer of rights are temporary and applicable to the media/format, the geographical territory and for a given period.
If these issues are taken care of through a contract, then issues of insurance come up to cover not-budgeted for legal expenses on cases thrust on the production/producer by some mischievous litigants, asserted insurance expert Maneck Dastur.
These experts were taking part in a panel discussion on challenges following globalisation of the film industry in India. The discussion was moderated by writer and filmmaker Ramesh Tekwani. Filmmaker Brahmanand Singh also spoke at the discussion jointly organised by Entertainment Society of Goa and the Film Federation of India.
Filmmaker and distributor Vincent Corda confirmed that no international co-production or distribution deal could be finalised unless the project is adequately insured. He went on to explain that besides the various development funds that existed to initiate and sustain project development, there was also a risk fund to cover such exigencies.
Straying from films yet staying with entertainment, Entertainment Society of Goa CEO Manoj Srivastava wanted to know just how IPR applied to events; the system of collection of fees seemed to be in place but he was not quite sure how the IPR owners got their dues from the collections. As this flummoxed all, the Film Federation of India had been asked to tackle it at the industry level with a condition that it must take up the copyright issue as a full-fledged, daylong seminar and thrash out the issue in detail.
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.
