Hindi
Hindi films dominate the 61st National Film Awards
NEW DELHI: The highly acclaimed film ‘Ship of Theseus’ in Hindi and English which has already won several awards overseas was declared the best film of 2013 in the 61st National Film Awards, while Hansal Mehta bagged the award for best director for his Hindi film ‘Shahid’.
The best actor award was shared by Raj Kumar of ‘Shahid’ and Suraj Venjaramoodu for the Malayalam film ‘Perariyathavar’ by Dr Biju which also bagged the award for the best film on environment/conservation.
The best actress award went to Geetanjali Thapa for her role in the Hindi film ‘Liar’s Dice’, while the supporting actor went to Saurabh Shukla for ‘Jolly LLB’ in Hindi. The supporting actress award was shared by Amruta Subhash in the Marathi film ‘Astu’ and Aida El-Kashief in ‘The Ship of Theseus’. The best children’s film was ‘Kaphal’ by Bahul Mukhtiar in Hindi while the best child artiste award was shared by Somnath Avghade of ‘Fandry’ in Marathi and Sadhana of the Tamil ‘Thanga Mangal’.
Hindi films once again dominated the National Film Awards by getting as many as fifteen awards among feature films. Marathi came next with ten awards followed by Bengali with six and Tamil and Kannada with five each and Malayalam with four.
However, the highest number of awards went to the Bengali film ‘Jaatishwar’ which won awards for best female playback for Rupankar and the film ‘e tumi kemon tumi’, best costume for Sabarni Das, best make-up for Vilram Gaikwad (for hero Prosenjit) and Kabir Suman for best musical score.
‘Bhag Milkha Bhag’ by Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra bagged the award for the most popular film providing wholesome entertainment. ‘Fandry’ got the Indira Gandhi Award for best directorial debut by Nagraj Manjule, the Nargis Dutt award for national integration for Balu Mahendra’s tamil film ‘Thalaimuraigal’ and the social issues award went to the Marathi ‘Tuhya Dharma Koncha’ by Satish Manwar.
All the films will get awards ranging between Rajat Kamal and Swarna Kamal and Rs 50,000 to Rs 2.5 lakh.
The best non-feature film is ‘Rangabhoomi’ in Hindi by Kamal Swaroop for Films Division and best debut director for shorts is Christo Tomy of SRFTII for the Malayalam ‘Kanyaka’, with Pranjal Dua getting the best direction award for ‘Chidhiya Udh’ without dialogues.
The Telugu ‘Cinema Ga Cinema’ by Nandagopal got the best book on cinema award while English critic Alaka Sahani got the best critic award.
The feature jury was headed by Saeed Akhtar Mirza, the non-feature by Reena Mohan and the book jury by Sharad Dutt.
The Dadasaheb Phalke Award and the National Film Awards are expected to be given on 3 May to coincide with the release of Phalke’s ‘Raja Harishchandra’ on that day in 1913.
Please click for the detailed list of awards
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.
