Hindi
Maidaan triumphs at the Septimius Awards
Mumbai: The glittering Septimius Awards in Amsterdam, renowned for honoring the very best in global cinema, has just announced its 2024 winners – and Maidaan, the sports biographical drama has secured the prestigious ‘Best Asian Film’ Award.
Held at the iconic Tuschinski Theater on 20 August, the Septimius Awards are a celebration of cinematic excellence on a grand scale. Often referred to as the “Oscars of Europe,” this event is a magnet for the industry’s elite, where the world’s top filmmakers and actors come together to honor creativity and innovation. This year, the ceremony was graced by a stellar lineup of BAFTA, Emmy, and Oscar winners, including the likes of Jenny Beavan, David Parfitt, Kevin Willmott, and Sir Christopher Hampton.
On winning this international accolade director Amit Ravindernath Sharma shared, “This is a truly special feeling, and words cannot fully capture the joy I am experiencing at this moment. Maidaan is a labor of love, and I am deeply grateful for the continuous outpouring of affection it is receiving. The global recognition the film is garnering is both humbling and a source of immense pride.”
Maidaan, with its compelling narrative and visionary direction, resonated deeply with the values of the Septimius Awards, earning its place as the Best Asian Film of 2024. This accolade not only highlights the film’s artistic brilliance but also underscores its significance on the global cinematic stage, marking a new milestone in international cinema.
Directed by Amit Ravindernath Sharma and produced by Zee Studios, Boney Kapoor, Arunava Joy Sengupta, and Akash Chawla, Maidaan features Ajay Devgn as Coach Syed Abdul Rahim along with Priyamani, Gajraj Rao and Rudranil Ghosh. The movie was released theatrically on 10 April 2024.
Amit Ravindernath Sharma’s groundbreaking TVCs include Pooja Didi – Facebook, Dove #StopTheBeautyTest, Lifebuoy – Help A Child Reach Five, Silent National Anthem, Google Reunion, have won prestigious awards like The Cannes Lions, D&AD, London International Awards, The Golden Award of Montreux, Spikes Asia, Adfest, and many more.
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.
