Hindi
JFF 2025 returns with its 13th Edition, beginning 4 September in Delhi
MUMBAI: The Jagran Film Festival (JFF), celebrated as the world’s largest traveling film festival, returns with its 13th edition, carrying forward its philosophy of Good Cinema for Everyone. Presented by Rajnigandha, the festival will kickstart on 4 September in Delhi, travel across 14 cities, and culminate in Mumbai on 16 November, making it India’s largest and most far-reaching cinematic celebration.
Since its inception, the Jagran Film Festival (JFF) has become a landmark celebration of storytelling, cultural exchange, and cinematic excellence. This year, JFF pays tribute to cinematic legends with special celebrations including the centenary of Guru Dutt, 50 years of Shabana Azmi in cinema, 50 years of the iconic film Sholay, and more. It also honours industry stalwarts Shyam Benegal, Manoj Kumar, Shaji N. Karun, and Pritish Nandy for their lasting contributions to Indian cinema.
Guided by mentors like Subhash Ghai, Khusboo Sundar, Adil Hussain, and A. Sreekar Prasad, and curated by Srinivasa Santhanam, Anupama Bose, and Premendra Mazumdar, JFF 2025 will feature engaging conversations with some of the industry’s finest, including, Shabana Azmi, Shilpa Shetty, R. Balki, Jaideep Ahlawat, Shruti Mahajan, Amit Sadh, Vineet Kumar Singh, among others.
As it journeys through 14 cities — Delhi, Kanpur, Lucknow, Varanasi, Prayagraj, Meerut, Agra, Ranchi, Patna, Hisar, Ludhiana, Gorakhpur, Dehradun, and Mumbai — each location will host exclusive premieres, retrospectives, masterclasses, and in-conversation sessions with acclaimed filmmakers, actors, and storytellers.
Speaking about the festival, Jagran Prakashan Ltd. Sr. VP – strategy and brand development, Basant Rathore shared, “Jagran Film Festival has grown into one of India’s most inclusive and far-reaching cultural movements, celebrating the legacy of Indian cinema while embracing bold, global narratives. With every edition, we reaffirm our belief in the power of cinema to provoke thought, inspire change, and build cultural bridges. The 2025 festival continues this legacy—amplifying bold voices, timeless stories, and emerging perspectives from across the globe. At Dainik Jagran, our purpose has always been to awaken and unite, and through JFF, we champion stories that speak across generations, geographies, and genres.”
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.
