Hindi
Jackky Bhagnani justifies liquor mention in song lyrics
MUMBAI: Actor Jackky Bhagnani has justified the use of liquor in the song ‘Lalla Lalla Lori’ from his upcoming film Welcome to Karachi. The actor said, “The song is only for you guys to have a good time. This is India, it is a secular country and if we can have alcohol openly then I do not see anything wrong if the songs are based on that.”
Bhagnani, who was here to promote Welcome to Karachi, which is set to release on 29 May. The actor was answering a question on objections raised by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC).
His co-stars in this action comedy are Lauren Gotlieb of ABCD fame, and Arshad Warsi. The film is directed by Ashish R. Mohan and produced by Vashu Bhagnani. The film has been shot in various locations of the United Kingdom and sets were recreated to resemble Karachi.
The film revolves around two Indian men played by Warsi and Bhagnani, who reach Karachi in Pakistan without passports and gets trapped by the Taliban. The journey becomes adventurous and exciting in their quest to find a way back to India.
Lauren said, “Working in Bollywood adds to my learning experience. When I came to India, I never thought I would get such amazing offers. ABCD taught me Hindi and now with this film I have learnt Urdu. And I am coming up with a very different avatar, that’s the best part.”
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.
