Movies
Harbhajan Mann’s Punjabi film to release on 29 May
NEW DELHI: Punjabi singer-turned-actor Harbhajan Mann will soon be seen in the suspense Punjabi thriller Gadaar-The Traitor, which is slated to release on 29 May.
Talking about the film, Mann said, “It is always good to play with characters as people have a tendency to get bored with things after a point of time. It is very important to entertain people with something different each time.”
Directed by Amitoj Mann and produced by Sumeet Singh, the film also stars Evelyn Sharma and Manpreet Grewal.
The film is produced under the banner of Saga-Unisys Infosolutions and Grandsons Films and will have a fresh concept amidst comedy and romance.
Mann said that the movie is likely to break stereotypes of storylines that has been set for so long and will be a complete package of action, romance, suspense and thrills.
Mann will portray a character named Jay Singh, who is an adventurous business tycoon.
The German model turned actress Evelyn Sharma’s looks and talent paved ways for more more roles in Bollywood. Sharma said, “My acting has grown as I have done many Hindi films. No doubt it was difficult but at the end of the day you are happy because you end up learning something new and delivering Punjabi dialogues was like a challenge for me. It is not everyone’s cup of tea. Your past experience makes you confident enough to take the challenge and it ultimately helps you to realise your potential.”
Grewal, who won the title Miss Australian Punjaban in 2012, will be debuting in the film as the female lead playing the character of a journalist. “This is my very first movie that too as a lead so I was actually shocked and excited at the same when the director approached me for the role. Also the character I am playing is very challenging and working with such great people in your first film is itself an opportunity to learn so many things from them,” she said.
Amitoj Mann, who has directed films like Haani, Hawayein,Kaafila and many music videos said, “It is time to change the face of Punjabi cinema and with this film, the audience will see more than just romance and love. The film has action, romance, suspense and thrill. It is a film that can potentially open more doors for other film makers. The audience will see good, clean cinema with thought-provoking and tastefully done stories.”
The film is shot in locations of Punjab, Goa, Mumbai and Toronto.
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.
