Hindi
Jagran Filmfest to screen over 100 films in Mumbai
NEW DELHI: Commenced on 22 September in Mumbai, the fifth Jagran Filmfest is showcasing over 100 films from more than 35 countries.
The festival was inaugurated by Irrfan Khan along with Neetu Chandra, script writer-director Vinod Pandey, screenplay writer Sanjay Masoom, festival strategic consultant Manoj Srivastava and Vinod Srivastava of the Jagran Group.
The festival began with a 106 minute film The Woods Are Still Green by Slovenian filmmaker Marko NaberSnik. Based on the First World War, the lead actor of the movie, Michael Kristof, was also present at the Filmfest.
Apart from showcasing Indian and International cinema, an integral part of the festival is the Master Class, where directors take listeners through the journey of film making.
The festival features films under several sections including Cinema of the Uprising, First World War Movies, International Competition, Indian Showcase and Country Focus (Cyprus).
The workshops include ‘Finding spaces in film festivals’, ‘Cinematography’, ‘Is independent cinema taking over Bollywood?’, ‘Starting small with shorts’ and ‘Casting? What do directors lookout for?’, ‘Reviewing cinema’, and ‘Making advertising films.’
Renowned filmmaker Phillip Cheah, Cyprus international film festival director Lokim Milonas and former Entertainment Society of Goa CEO Manoj Srivastava will also be addressing various workshops and ‘Master of Cinema’ sessions at the Festival which will continue till 28 September.
The Festival is an initiative by the Jagran Group towards creating a culture of cinema appreciation. The festival screens films across genres, documentaries and world classics apart from student films and ad films.
The festival will also hold a series of Panel Discussions with the cast and crew of the movie to discuss various elements of the films with the audiences.
Jagran Film Festival is the country’s only festival which runs across 16 cities including Delhi, Kanpur, Lucknow, Allahabad, Varanasi, Gorakhpur, Agra, Meerut, Dehradun, Patna, Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Raipur, Indore, Bhopal and Mumbai.
Films are being screened at two venues in the city: PVR Andheri, and Cinemax, Versova.
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.
