Hindi
Intriguing social drama ‘Gulaal’ premieres today
MUMBAI: Bollywood has seen a plethora of films based on state politics, but there has never been a narrative as startling as ‘Gulaal’. Boasting of superlative performances, this film directed by Anurag Kashyap cuts through the layers of grass-root politics situated in the regions from Rajasthan to Bihar. Zee Classic with its brand promise of Woh Zamana Kare Deewana, will premiere ‘Gulaal’ in India’s Finest Films on Friday, 3 March, at 10pm.
‘Gulaal’ revolves around a central god-like leader, illegitimate methods of conducting politics, folk songs heartily sung by Rekha Bharadwaj and strong noteworthy performances by Kay Kay Menon, Mahie Gill, Raj Singh Chaudhary, Jesse Randhawa, Piyush Mishra and a climax that is sure to give goosebumps! The film took seven long years of wait and relentless struggle by Anurag Kashyap to make it happen. It is highly credited for its compelling storytelling and dark themed narrative.
Dilip Singh (Raj Singh Chaudhary), a soft-spoken man comes to Rajasthan to study law. Due to the lack of hostel occupancy, he is forced to stay with an unstable man Rananjay Singh (Abhimanyu Singh). During his constant attempts to relocate, Dilip encounters a room-full of men who torture and abuse him. He is then locked up in a room with a lady (Jesse Randhawa). Dilip partners with Rananjay and Dukey Bana (Kay Kay Menon) to plan to take revenge on the people who humiliated him. Dukey Bana is a local uncrowned monarch who was contesting for the forthcoming university elections. Murders, bloodshed and conniving tactics to get to the top is what forms the rest of the film.
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.
