Hindi
Karan Johar to host; Lata Mangeshkar to sing at Dilip Kumar’s autobiography launch
MUMBAI: Bollywood thespian Dilip Kumar’s autobiography ‘Substance And The Shadow’ launch, which will be held on 9 June in Mumbai, will be a historic moment! What with the who’s who of the film industry coming together and being actively involved into it.
Filmmaker Karan Johar will be the host of the mega book launch event! Lata Mangeshkar will light the inaugural lamp and begin the event by singing a few lines for Dilip Kumar followed by topnotch actors Amitabh Bachchan and Aamir Khan unveiling the autobiography, documented by Dilip Kumar’s close friend Udaya Tara Nayar (writer/author).
While Big B will read a verse or a paragraph from the book, Aamir will recite a poem, written by Prasoon Joshi.
Other close pals and industry veterans like Dharmendra will read a few lines on the thespian; Vyjayanthimala will speak a few words in honour of the legendary actor.
Interestingly, Javed Ali and Shaan will perform a medley of Dilip Kumar’s evergreen hits, which has been composed by Lalit Pandit.
That apart, an audio visual-3D mapping video on the entire journey of Dilip Kumar will also be played at the event.
Shahrukh and Salman Khan might attend the launch event! Hema Malini, Madhuri Dixit, Tina and Anil Ambani, Kamal Haasan, Priyanka Chopra, Parineeti Chopra, Vidya Balan are also expected to grace the event!
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.
