Hindi
IIFA Stomp to bring the best of Bollywood
MUMBAI – With a view to recreate the vibrant magic of India in America, IIFA Stomp is a unique initiation into Bollywood. The opening event of the Videocon d2h IIFA Weekend is an open to public, community party that will kick start celebrations. IIFA Stomp is set to take place on 23 April at the Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park which overlooks the Hillsborough River. The event is co-sponsored by TECO Energy and Nielsen, and support sponsored by USAmeriBank.
Playing out as a befitting welcome party of the biggest celebration of Indian cinema, the event will celebrate Indian culture at its best in Tampa Bay in an effort to include the locals and tourists alike. The IIFA Stomp party will show gratitude to Tampa and all the local citizens for the warmth and love they have shown in hosting the IIFA Weekend & Awards. Visitors can experience Bollywood music teamed with Bollywood dance and Indian cuisine and handicrafts. The evening will also see specialty food stalls serving both Indian and international cuisines.
Performances by popular Indian and local DJ’s await audiences with DJ Clement, DJ Aman Nagpal and DJ Ravi Drums, among others slated to perform. Having played along music stars like Paula Abdul, Tupac Shekar, Justin Timberlake, the sensational percusionnist DJ Ravi Drums who is slated to perform at the event, has also produced the official Track for IIFA titled ‘Do Da Tampa’. The open-event hopes to encourage as many fans to attend the occasion as possible.
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.
