Hindi
Gul Panag opens Bollywood innings with ‘Dhoop’
MUMBAI: Gul Panag, the former Femina Miss India Universe recently seen in Star Plus’ Kashmeer, has commenced her Bollywood innings with an Om Puri starrer called Dhoop. Dhoop is supposed to be a post-Kargil drama – the true-life story of the parents of a young captain who lays down his life for his country.
Panag’s co-stars include bigwigs Om Puri, south-based star Revathy and the handsome Sanjay Suri ofFilhaal fame. To be released in July 2003,Dhoop is being directed by Ashwini Chaudhary who has worked with Prakash Jha.
When queried about her TV stint, Panag informs indiantelevision.com: “Kashmeer cannot be branded as a TV serial. It is a 26-episode series with the look and scale of a feature film. The overall treatment and impact is unlike anything else seen on TV. However, I must say that the phenomenal response which I got from acting in Kashmeer must be four times that of what I got after bagging the Femina title.”
Panag bagged the film Dhoop when art director Chokas Bharadwaj (who is also doing Kashmeer) and producer Saket Bahal referred her name to director Chaudhary.
It is suprising to note that Panag is not making her debut in an out-and-out commercial film with lots of romance. ‘Well, I have had my share of glamour due to the Femina title and my modelling stint. I wish to concentrate on quality performances. Working with seasoned actors such as Farooque Shaikh and Suresh Oberoi in Kashmeer has given me a different perspective. There is always this urge to try one’s best in their presence,” says Panag.
The shooting for Dhoop commences on 19 February 2003. Well, Panag had better remember the above-mentioned words as she will be rubbing shoulders with two accomplished players – Om Puri and Revathy – who have won National awards.
Dhoop is inspired by a real life story of professor of Economics from Delhi University. It is not a typical war-film but narrates the story of the trials of a martyr’s father who fights the system. Along with his grieving wife, the main protagonist wages a battle against callous bureaucrats and government officials. Om Puri, Revathy play the main characters with Panag and Suri as the young couple.
Revathy, the south Indian star, has chosen a Hindi film after a long time. Currently, she has another Tamil film on the floors and is pretty selective about scripts.
The name of the film, Dhoop, signifies the aftermath of war once the guns have been silenced. It studies the impact of war on human beings who live and constantly struggle against the inflexible system.
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.
