Hindi
First look of Paranthe Wali Gali released
MUMBAI: Director Sachin Gupta, who has proved his mettle in the theatre world, wanted to zoom in on the like of the Delhi Streets, and nothing could have been better than naming Paranthe Waali Gali. The film that was announced earlier this year, is ready to be released in January.
However, the first look of the film that stars Anuj Saxena and debutant Neha, was released today.
The story of the feature film Paranthe Wali Gali starts from the famous and popular lane in Delhi and then moves into the lives of the characters living there. This film can be considered the story of unsung love that blossoms in very famous lane of paranthe in Old Delhi, and deals with affair of emotions and caring between the couple. Set in the backdrop of theatre, it is about their journey giving inroads into life in theater. A romantic comedy, it also has various other dimensions. It is a sensitive film of dreams, success, failure and relation. It is something that everybody who dreams, can relate to.
The film is trying to touch parts of Old Delhi from Dariba Kalan to Kinari Bazaar and Khari Bawri – places that have not been explored till now. It is a place of much nostalgia for many people. The name itself has romantic foodie connotations. As an allegory to life, one can fantasize about plates of steamy, crispy, puffed up Paranthas, drowning in lots of gooey, yummy ghee, stuffed with an array of vegetables and meats.
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.
