Hindi
Ladakh Intl film fest categorised in 4 sections
MUMBAI: The Ladakh International Film Festival (LIFF), which is scheduled to be held from 15-17 June, has been categorised into four sections namely World Cinema, Indian Cinema, Competition and Ladakh.
While the World Cinema category is open only to International Films, the Indian Cinema section is open only to films made in India. While the competition section will include feature films, short films, animation films and documentary films, the Ladakh section will include only those films that are made by the residents of Ladakh or the films made on Ladakh.
Chaired by Shyam Benegal, LIFF Patrons include a mix of senior film professionals and young, enthusiastic cine lovers. Other eminent personalities who are on board as patrons of the LFF include Christian Jeune- Deputy Director General, Festival De Cannes, Derek Malcolm, President of British Federation of Film Societies and The International Film Critics Circle, film critic and historian Jacob Neiindam, director Copenhagen Film Festival.
Eminent filmmakers Govind Nihalani, Shekhar Kapur, Shaji N Karun, Madhur Bhandarkar, Deepti Naval, filmmaker Vishal Bhardwaj, producer-director Ketan Mehta and art director Nitin Desai would represent Bollywood among the patrons. Melwyn Williams Chirayath is the festival director of the festival.
Speaking on the inception of the festival Benegal said, “I am extremely delighted to announce the first edition of the Ladakh International Film Festival. The effort is to create a festival that is totally distinct from other film festivals. Ladakh is a unique and apt venue for LIFF. The aspiration is to make it one of the best and exclusive film festivals on the roof of the world.”
Chirayath added, “Ladakh International Film Festival is like a dream come true as it was always a desire for me to associate my love for cinema and love for the beautiful environs of Ladakh. Through the Ladakh International Film Festival, it will be our mission to give this region its due and at the same time, make it a green initiative by conserving the ecosphere here and introducing carbon offsets.
“The presence of Cannes and Copenhagen Film Festival Directors and eminent Jury and Patrons members is proof to the fact that this Festival holds immense promise and potential to be one of the best and probably the most exotic Film Festivals in the world. It is high time we start thinking towards contributing back”
Multiple screen projections along with sound for better visibility during day time screenings will be installed at the venue. There will be an auditorium screening with 35mm dual projection and 5.1 sound facilities.
Besides this, there will be two open air screenings. Films will be screened in three venues simultaneously and venues will have transportation facilities like buses and bicycles.
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.
