Hindi
Mahesh Bhatt encourages debate on censorship at Elevate 2015
MUMBAI: Filmmaker-activist Mahesh Bhatt moderated a debate on the topic of censorship with Bollywood stalwarts Amit Khanna, Sudhir Mishra, Bhawana Somaaya and Ketan Mehta making their stand at The Third Eye’s program Elevate 2015, the second annual conclave held at The Club, Mumbai, this week.
With a discussion on creating synergies between regulatory bodies and industry leaderships, the industry heavyweights mulled on how the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) and other regulatory authorities can look ahead in time and create a vision for creative communities; thus empowering audiences.
Bhatt asked some thought-provoking questions. “Is there a role that the regulators really have to play in the digital age,” he wondered. “Is there a way for content creators to establish a non-confrontational dialogue with the government regulatory bodies?”
Industry doyen Amit Khanna opined, “In the 21st century, given the way technology has allowed us to interact with each other, there is no role for anything called censorship in the audio-visual media.”
“The censorship is no longer a possibility in any way in today’s digital age. This is the first time in history that such a thing is possible,” marked director Sudhir Mishra.
Director Ketan Mehta was blunt. “Censorship is corrupt and immoral exercise of power,” he said.
Veteran journalist, author and an ex-member of the CBFC, Bhawana Somaaya pointed out that the Censor Board has a provision where filmmakers have a right to refuse and argue with the objections of the Board in their entirety. She felt that “censorship is being interpreted in a wrong way. It is being misunderstood. There are guidelines for it and they require some modifications.”
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.
