Hindi
Kahaani runs into controversy as Kolkata Metro wants sensitive scene removed
MUMBAI: With the Kolkata Metro railway authorities objecting to a scene in Sujoy Ghosh‘s Vidya Balan-starrer Kahaani where the actress is shown as being pushed perilously before a speeding train, the film has run into a controversy.
The Metro authorities have asked producers of the film to remove the particular clip from their trailers as well as from the film. The film‘s trailer shows a pregnant Vidya Bagchi waiting on the platform to board a train at the Kalighat station. As soon as the train arrives, she is dangerously pushed onto the tracks by a man standing close to her.
“We are opposed to the scene as we are very concerned about the rate of suicides on the Metro tracks. We know how people get ideas for committing suicide and for other criminal activities,” said Kolkata Metro‘s General Manager P B Murti.
The Railway authorities wrote to the film‘s producer claiming that the scene would not only harm the image of the Metro but also leave a negative impact on the audience.
Rubbishing the same, Ghosh said: “The scene in the film is not meant to remind people of suicides. Anyways, if anybody has to commit suicide, he will not do it because of my film. As a filmmaker I need to show all sides of a city, including the darker aspects.”
A source close to the film said the shot was part of a dream sequence and had been shot using CGI (computer-generated imagery) technique.
It may be noted that the Metro authorities had allowed the film unit to shoot for four days last year at the busy Tollygunje and Kalighat metro stations.
Kahaani releases on 9 March.
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.
