Hindi
First official competitive BRICS film festival next month to have twenty films
NEW DELHI: Twenty films – four each from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – are to feature in the first government level BRICS Film Festival toi be held in here early next month.
Malayalam movie Veeram will be the opening film for the festival being held from 2 to 6 September at Siri Fort Auditorium.
They jury is headed by eminent Kannada filmmaker T S Nagabharana. Other members are producer and curator Francis Vogner do Reis from Brazil; Kirill Razlogov of Russia who has served as a special adviser for 11 years on film history and international affairs to the President of Goskino of the USS; Hou Keming of China who is a professor of the direction department of Beijing Film Academy and chairperson of the China Children’s Film Association and the president of China International Children’s Film Festival; and Ms. Xoliswa Sithole of South Africa who is founder and director, of Nayanaya Pictures and the founding member of Filmmakers against Racism.
Information and Broadcasting Minister M Venkaiah Naidu, releasing a poster of the festival, said the idea of organizing BRICS film festival originated at the last BRICS Summit and was proposed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Minister of State for I&B Rajyavardhan Rathore was also present on the occasion
The Film Festival would act as a platform for people of the film industry of member countries to explore areas of cooperation in the domain of “cinema, culture and cuisine”. The festival would also celebrate the excellence of cinema by rewarding filmmakers, actors, producers and directors.
The BRICS Film Festival would be a bioscope that would showcase distinct cultures, cuisines and arts from the participating countries. A step taken to build bridges and bring harmony amongst the BRICS countries, the festival would ensure more people-to-people contact between member countries especially youth.
In this context, the minister said that India has planned activities like U-17 Football Tournament, Youth Summit, Young Diplomats’ Forum and also a special screening of student films from some BRICS nations during the course of the festival.
The Opening film for the festival would be the world premiere of the Malayalam movie, Veeram directed by Jayaraj Rajasekharan Nair and starring Kunal Kapoor. The movie is a trans-creation of Shakespeare’s Macbeth and flawlessly portrays the greed for power and the extent a person goes to attain them. Jayaraj is a multiple National Awards Winner who has marked his presence in mainstream as well as art house films. His last film Ottal, won the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival.
The Closing film would be the Chinese movie Skiptrace starring Jackie Chan directed by Renny Harlin. The movie is an action-comedy, which revolves around a Chinese detective who teams up with an American Gambler to catch a Chinese Criminal.
The film festival will showcase an amalgamation of culture, films, song & dance and food of the 5 member countries, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. Exclusive cuisines from all the BRICS nations would also be available at the Food Court, arranged in the festival venue. A Crafts Fair is also being organized at the Sir Fort auditorium complex with all member countries putting up stalls with souvenirs and other properties for sale.
Beyond films, the Festival will also bring to stage spectacular performances by the Chengdu Performing Arts Theatre (China), Theatre Leningrad Centre Dreams of Russia and MBZ Music Production (South Africa).
The films in the competition section from all the 5 participating countries are listed below:
|
Brazil |
Russia |
India |
China |
South Africa |
|
Between Valleys Director: Philippe Barcinski |
14+ Director: Andrei Zaitsev |
Baahubali- the Beginning Director: S.S. Rajamouli |
Book of Love Director: Xiaolu Xue |
Free State Director: Sallas De Jager |
|
Road 47 Director: Vincente Ferraz |
About Love Director: Anna Melikyan |
Bajirao Mastani Director: Sanjay Leela Bhansali |
Go Away Mr. Tumor Director: Han Yan |
Kalushi Director: Mandla Dube |
|
The History of Eternity Director: Camilo Cavalcante |
The Battle of Sevastopol Director: Sergey Mokritsky |
Cinemawala Director: Kaushik Ganguly |
Songs of the Phoenix Director: Tian-Ming Wu |
Mrs. Right Guy Director: Adze Ugah |
|
They’ll Come Back Director: Marcello Lordello |
Very Best Day Director: Zhora Krizovnicka |
Thithi Director: Raam Reddy |
Xuan Zang Director: Jianqi Huo |
Tess Director: Meg Rickards |
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.
