Hindi
Film Bazaar to have a romance screenwriters’ lab
NEW DELHI: The Film Bazaar that will be held to coincide with the International Film Festival of India will this year feature a romance screenwriters’ lab with six scripts in the romance genre mentored by leading Indian filmmakers and writers.
Another new feature at the Bazaar this year is the film offices for various states of the country for their film promotion and tourism boards, and film commissions for them to introduce their delegates to the visiting delegates, National Film Development Corporation managing director Neena Lath Gupta, which organises the Bazaar told indiantelevision.com.
The Bazaar will be held from 20 to 24 November at the Marriott Resort in Panaji, Goa. The Festival itself is being held from 20 to 30 November.
Other sections include exhibition stalls for showcasing products and meetings with other delegates, screenwriters’ lab which will also have six scripts; and a producers’ lab for producers to learn the facets of production from leading Indian and international producers.
There will be a co-production market for South Asian stories with international appeal that can go for pitching to international market delegates; industry screenings which are aimed at exclusive film screenings at digital theatres for investors, buyers and festival programmes from other festivals in India and overseas; and the viewing room meant for latest film projects that are meant for festival placement and sales or finishing funds.
In addition, the Bazaar for which entries are still open, will have networking events where discussions are held informally over tea or meals, work-in-progress labs for films that in rough-cut stage, NFDC knowledge series lectures by renowned film personalities, and a branding opportunity for those get themselves associated with the Bazaar which gets delegates from all over the globe.
Aspiring film delegates include buyers and exhibitors, those looking for co-production opportunities, heads or representatives of International Film Festivals, film producers, and members of film distribution bodies.
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.
