Hindi
Indian Filmfest in Houston in October invites entries for documentaries and features
NEW DELHI: The 5th annual Indian Film Festival at Houston in the United States, to be held from 4 to 6 October, has invited entries by the end of this month for features and documentaries.
The festival showcases Indian related films that can compete in the world stage and beyond Bollywood zany entertainers.
The Indian Film Festival of Houston (IFFH) is an official event on the International Film Festival circuit and some of the previous winners have been recognised on the international film circuit – one is an Oscar winner and another is an Oscar-nominated film.
IFFH offers Jury awards for Best Feature, Best Documentary, Best Short and Special Recognition Awards for Industry Leaders. IFFH will also be giving scholarships to students who are interested to attend Film and Television School in Houston.
The festival will span three nights and will present more than 12 screenings daily. This makes it one of the most unique and original Indian film festivals in the south of the US. The festival will feature film screenings, special symposia and educational events presented throughout the Houston area.
The full Indian Film Festival of Houston line-up will be announced at 31 August.
Film producer and Festival founder Sutapa Ghosh said: “Not all Indian films are done in the Bollywood style. We love Bollywood, but we are beyond Bollywood. The new generation has evolved into something new now. There was stagnation for a long time, where we were doing the same thing over and over. Now, the younger generation is doing something different. We have documentaries, short films, off beat independent films. We want to showcase the best of Indian related cinema at the world stage”
The permanent house for the IFFH Festival is Asia Society, which is very prestigious all over the world.
The Indian Film Festival of Houston (IFFH) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organisation devoted to education in the fields of film and television and in creating a greater appreciation of Indian cinema and culture by showcasing quality films that honor entertainment industry performers and film makers while promoting the diverse perspectives of the Indian Diaspora through an annual event.
Ghosh is the Founder and Festival Director of Indian Film Festival of Houston. Born in Kolkata, she moved to USA 20 years ago. She earned her Master’s Degree (MS) from Rhode Island, USA and also has a Bachelor’s degree in Music (Sitar). Ghosh has produced two Bengali Feature Films, Utsab and Titli, both directed by Rituparno Ghosh. She was also recognised as the 100 most Creative People in Texas in 2012.
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.
