Hindi
Film Guild implements ‘swachh bharat abhiyan’
MUMBAI: The ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’ initiative was launched this year on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti by the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi all over the country with a remarkable endeavor to make India clean within the next five years.
In association to this, the Film & Television Producers Guild of India Ltd. (Guild), the entertainment trade association comprising the who’s who of the Indian film & television industry, has taken up the challenging task to promote and encourage cleanliness, as an industry.
The council of management of the Guild believes that the Film industry has always essayed an important role in contributing to such noble causes and as industry representative, the Guild should take the forefront in pioneering this wonderful enterprise of nation building through cleanliness ushered by Modi.
With this laudable initiative, the Guild will work towards ensuring that the film industry’s support to the union government is unflinching, providing a stepping stone for exemplary success in the times to come.
The council of management of the Guild has unanimously passed a resolution to refrain the members from displaying and affixing all kinds of film posters in public domain across Indian cities including 6 sheeters in the public places, walls and government structures across the country.
Film and Television Producers Guild of India president, Mukesh Bhatt states, “I would like to set an example myself by ensuring that the posters of my forthcoming film “Khamoshiyan – Silences have secrets” due for release on 23 January 2015 are not displayed on the public walls and government structures. I truly believe that this practice will not only act as a strong deterrent against showcasing film posters in public places but also set an ideal example for the society and general public to emulate the film industry’s path and thereby play an important role in joining hands with the Prime Minister and Central Government to make India clean and thus pay a fitting tribute to the Father of nation Mahatma Gandhi on his 150th birth anniversary, 2 October2019, who always advocated the principle ‘Cleanliness is Godliness’ throughout the great journey of his life.”
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.
