Hindi
Jagran Film Festival 2023 recognises renowned figures of Indian Cinema
Mumbai: Jagran Film Festival 2023 awards brought together the crème de la crème of the Indian film industry in Mumbai, delivering a spectacular event that exceeded all expectations.
Showman Subhash Ghai, an esteemed filmmaker celebrated for his iconic contributions to Indian cinema, was honoured with the Icon of Indian Cinema Award. The Best Director Award was presented to Manish Mudra for the movie “Siya,” while the Best Actor accolade was shared by Rani Mukherjee for “Mrs Chatterjee Vs Norway” and Jayaraj Kozhikod for “Jananam: 1947 Pranayam Thudarunnnu.” Manoj Bajpayee secured the OTT Best Actor Male title. Anupam Kher was declared the Actor of the Festival 2023 by popular choice, and Adil Hussain and Nathalia were lauded with the Audience Choice award for “International Foot Prints on Water.”
The movie “Siya” received the Best Feature Film award in the Indian category, while “Travels Inside Foreign Heads” was honoured as the Best Feature Film in the International category. Additionally, “Tikdam,” “Lavaste,” and “Chidiyakhana” were acknowledged with special mentions for their outstanding contributions at the event.
Jagran Prakashan Ltd senior vice president of strategy brand & business development Basant Rathore emphasised the immense popularity of the Jagran Film Festival, which strives to delight cinema enthusiasts each year by presenting a diverse array of unique and popular movies. He expressed gratitude to the exceptional jury tasked with selecting standout films and highlighted the festival’s vital role in providing a platform for emerging talents to showcase insightful and thought-provoking films. Rathore also acknowledged the festival’s significant milestone with its 11th edition, marking a decade of taking ‘Cinematic Culture’ to both metro and smaller cities across India, promoting an appreciation of cinematic art at the grassroots level.
The Jagran Film Festival kick-started in Delhi on 03 August and travelled through Kanpur, Lucknow, Allahabad, Varanasi, Dehradun, Hisar, Ludhiana, Patna, Ranchi, Lucknow, Gorakhpur, Raipur, Indore. The festival culminated with the Jagran Film Festival 2023 Awards on 15 October in Mumbai.
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.
