Hindi
Kapil Dev to be the guest of honour at the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne 2022
Mumbai: The Indian Film Festival of Melbourne which for the last two years was held virtually will make its physical comeback with programming spanning both in person and online to keep up with the current times. The festival is set to take place in Melbourne from 12-20 August. Before the world was hit by a pandemic, in 2019 the festival hosted by the likes of Shahrukh Khan, Arjun Kapoor, Tabu, Vijay Sethupathi, Rima Das, Zoya Akhtar, Karan Johar amongst others.
This year the festival will kick off with its opening night on 12 August and will have its yearly annual awards gala on 14 August. The film programming the organisers said is more diverse than ever before with over 100 films in 23 languages having been selected for the festival. Programming of the festival will soon be announced by the organisers and Indian film artists will be flying down to Melbourne to celebrate cinema in all its diversity.
Furthering the popularity of one of the most talked about films this past year, 83 directed by Kabir Khan, the festival has invited former cricketer, Kapil Dev to be the guest of honour.
Dev said, “I look forward to being part of IFFM 2022. It’s a great platform celebrating the best in Indian cinema. I truly do believe that sports and cinema are two major cultural experiences for not only Indians but various communities and countries that bind us together. It’s something for decades now that has united people. It’s a deep rooted emotional connection and love we have for both cinema and sports, and when they come together it’s a rewarding experience for everyone.”
Speaking of the festival and its coming back physically, the festival director Mitu Bhowmick Lange said, “We are absolutely delighted to have IFFM come back physically this year alongside exciting virtual programming. To have with us a legendary cricketer, Kapil Dev in honour of a film based on his iconic 83 World Cup Win, we are excited to have him in Melbourne. Being a city of cinema and cricket lovers alike, we are certain the audiences will be excited to see him here. The festival this year has over 100 films from across the India sub-continent and we are excited to celebrate Indian cinema in all its glory and diversity”.
Minister for creative industries Steve Dimopoulos said, “From its diverse program of film and joyous celebration of culture to the star power it attracts, the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne is an unmissable event. The Victorian government is a proud, long standing supporter of IFFM, this year boosting our support for the festival to extend its reach and impact, and we look forward to seeing Victorians from all communities join the celebration.”
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.
