Hindi
Imtiaz Ali launches Tisca Chopra’s debut book ‘Acting Smart’
MUMBAI: With few character roles on TV and films, actor Tisca Chopra has proved her worth to the entertainment fraternity of the country. It was time for her to tell the world that she is much more than that and thus Tisca took to writing. The pre-launch of the actor’s book, Acting Smart was held at the Indian Non-Friction Literature festival with director Imtiaz Ali.
Tisca has always been a book lover and voracious reader with her favourites including the likes of PG Wodehouse, Oscar Wilde and Stephen King. However, her book, Acting Smart is more of a guide for all the newbies in the industry, cinegoers and movie buffs. The actor took over a few months to come up with ideas that are fresh and unique.
Imtiaz Ali, who is a very dear friend of Tisca not only unveiled the book but has also contributed a few episodes and anecdotes in the book along with Raju Hirani, Shabana Azmi, Boman Irani and many more.
The event saw Tisca Chopra and Imtiaz Ali talking to the audiences and sharing few of their personal and interesting experiences which they have come across in the course of their careers.
Also present at the event was Tisca Chopra’s husband Sanjay Chopra who is also a writer and cheered and supported Tisca throughout the event.
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.
