Hindi
Indian producer’s American film ‘Yellow’ shines at Toronto
NEW DELHI: Indian film maker Manu Kumaran, whose Bombay Boys had opened markets for alternative cinema in India, went on to produce American film “Yellow” written and directed by Nick Cassavetes, which opened to rave reviews and audience appreciation at the recently-concluded Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF).
While Screen Daily declared it as “a film destined for cult status”, Piers Handling, the director of TIFF, described the film as “a wild, out-there, visually liberated feat of imagination.” Described as, “Officially the most refreshing breath of air at this year’s TIFF,‘‘ by Indie Wire (http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/tiff-review-nick-cassavetes-yellow-is-daring-bold-and-just-what-the-doctor-ordered-20120910), Yellow premiered in the Special Presentation segment of the festival which also featured films from makers such as Paul Thomas Anderson, Brian De Palma and Spike Lee, among others.
Starring Heather Wahlquist, Sienna Miller, Melaine Griffith, Ray Liota, and Gena Rowlands, Yellow is a searing take on modern society and the demands it makes on people. The film is woman centric and tells the story of Mary Holmes, (Heather Wahlquist), a young substitute teacher who escapes from her drudging everyday life by fantasizing bizarre parallel realities. We enter her hallucinatory world, peopled with Busby Berkeley dancers, Cirque du Soleil, Circus freaks, and human farm animals where nothing is quite what it seems.
All three public screenings of Yellow were sold out at the festival. “Even the press and industry screening was sold out. This speaks volumes about strong word of mouth Yellow is generating among the audience. The reviews so far have been very good but what was more exciting to see was the response of the audience,” said Kumaran who belongs to the world of advertising.
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.
