Hindi
Film on Shahid Afridi in offing
MUMBAI: Making films based on the life of cricketers is fast gaining ground in India. While Vidhu Vinod Chopra‘s Ferrari Ki Sawaari is said to be based on Sachin Tendulkar, two noted film producers of Pakistan are in the process of making a film on the country’s flamboyant cricketer Shahid Afridi titled Main Hun Shahid Afridi.
Main Hun Shahid Afridi, to be made by Humayun Saeed and Shahzad Nasib entails the struggles and achievements of a simple boy who made it big in cricket through sheer determination and hard work.
Directed by Osman Ali Raza, the film will also star Saeed himself.
The film has been shot at popular stadiums in Karachi and Sialkot with the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) being actively supportive. More than 50 per cent of the film has been completed, according to the producers.
The film’s lead role is being played by a 19-year-old Noman Habib, who himself is an aspiring cricketer. Afridi, however, would not be making an appearance in the film.
Earlier, UK-based filmmaker Faisal Aman Khan made a film on the life of cricketer turned politician Imran Khan.
Afridi, 32, has played 27 Tests, 334 one day internationals and 46 twenty20 internationals for the Pakistani team.
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.
