Hindi
Hitchcock to premiere at AFI fest
MUMBAI: The American Film Institute (AFI) has announced that the film ‘Hitchcock‘, starring Oscar winners Anthony Hopkins as Alfred Hitchcock and Helen Mirren as his wife and Alma Reville, Scarlett Johansson as actress Janet Leigh, Jessica Biel as actress Vera Miles and James D‘Arcy as actor Anthony Perkins ‘Psycho‘ will have its World Premiere on 1 November , as the Opening Night Gala of this year‘s fest presented by Audi.
The film is directed by Sacha Gervasi and also stars Toni Collette, Danny Huston and Michael Stuhlbarg.
Fox Searchlight Pictures will release the film in November. The film a love story about one of the most influential filmmakers of the last century, Alfred Hitchcock, and his wife and partner, Alma Reville, takes place during the making of the director‘s seminal 1960 movie, ‘Psycho‘.
AFI president, CEO Bob Gazzale said, "AFI‘s history with Alfred Hitchcock is a proud one, from a Master Seminar at the AFI Conservatory in 1970 to his receiving the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1979. We are honored to celebrate his lasting legacy with the World Premiere of Hitchcock – a bloody valentine to his creative genius and the inspired woman at his side."
AFI Fest director Jacqueline Lyanga said, "Alfred Hitchcock‘s signature style has made him one of the most influential directors in the world. This film pulls back the curtain and takes us behind-the-scenes of his lifelong collaboration with his wife Alma during the making of his 1960 masterpiece ‘Psycho‘ – it‘s the perfect film to welcome our audience of movie-lovers with on opening night."
Alfred Hitchcock was the recipient of the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1979. Four of his movies rank among the greatest films of all time on AFI‘s 100 Years…100 Movies list: Vertigo (#9), Psycho (#14), Rear Window (#48) and North By Northwest (#55). In addition, ‘Psycho‘ was ranked number one on AFI‘s list of most heart pounding American films and, in a serendipitous turn, the Norman Bates character portrayed by Anthony Perkins in ‘Psycho‘ was ranked number two on AFI‘s Top Villains list – just behind Anthony Hopkins‘ Hannibal Lecter in ‘The Silence Of The Lambs‘.
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.
