Hindi
Nitin Desai turns director with Ajintha-an untold story
MUMBAI: Following the footsteps of art director Samir Chanda, noted art director Nitin Chandrakant Desai has turned to direction with his ambitious Marathi-English film, Ajintha-an untold story.
A period film of the 18th century, Ajintha-an untold story revolves around exploring the truth of discovering the Ajanta Caves and the love story of a British officer Major Robert Gill who falls in love with an Adivasi girl, Paro. It reveals the truth of who really explored Ajanta caves and its striking paintings.
The strong research and real study is revealed through the film which say that Paro from Lenapur, the village closest to the Ajanta caves, played an important role for the British officer to find the essence of the caves that later became world renowned for exotic paintings, impressive architecture and long-forgotten history.
Talking about the inspiration behind his will to make the film, Desai averred, “Unfolding the pages of history has always been a passion to me like I made a mega serial on Shivaji Maharaj named Raja Shiv Chhatrapati, a tele-serial on Bajirao Mastani and one of the most critically-acclaimed blockbuster films, Bal Gandharva. It has always been my dream to make a film on Ajanta Caves since I saw the caves when I was in class 8. For the last several years, I researched a lot on the subject with noted Marathi poet and historian ND Mahanot.”
Why a period film and what was the purpose behind the making? “Through the film, I want our beautiful Indian heritage and the real story behind it to reach out to not only youngsters in our country but also those from abroad. The seed of the story was germinating in my mind for several years but now with the strong support of my team, I can see it turning into a huge fruitful tree,” observed Desai.
“On the whole, Ajintha will give the glimpses of the true epic story of a girl who became a major source of inspiration of Gill, sufferer of the misery and their untold love story,” he added.
The cast of the film comprises Philip Scot Wallace, last seen in the latest edition of Sherlock Holmes, Sonalee Kulkarni, Makrand Deshpande, Manoj Kolhatkar, Jian Bostoch and Manoj Joshi.
Produced under the banner of Iconic Chandrakant Productions, the film has been invited to participate in this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Since Wallace is a Britisher himself, Desai will premiere his film in London in May. It is scheduled to release in India in June.
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.
