Hindi
Over 130 films in fourth edition of India’s largest LGBT Film Festival
NEW DELHI: The fourth edition of KASHISH International Queer Film Festival beginning tomorrow in Mumbai will screen a total of 132 films from forty countries.
While China is the country in focus with more than 12 films, there will be LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) films from Iran, Serbia, Slovakia, Pakistan and Morocco.
The Filmmaker in focus is American filmmaker and activist Jim Hubbard, who will be traveling to India to be present at the festival being held from 22 to 26 May.
The Parade from Serbia will open the festival while Rituparno Ghosh’s Chitrangada: The Crowning Wish will be the closing film.
The festival will be held at a Cinemax, Versova in Andheri from 22 to 26 May and at Alliance Française de Bombay from 23 to 25 May.
KASHISH Mumbai International Queer Film Festival is the first and only gay and lesbian film festival in India to be held in a mainstream theatre and one of the first queer festivals to receive clearance from the ministry of information and broadcasting.
Festival programmer Saagar Gupta said:"This year KASHISH is programming the biggest collection of films and from countries that are very diverse, including countries where making films on LGBT themes is challenging. Also keeping in tune with this year’s themes of ‘Towards Change‘ there are several outstanding documentaries to watch out for including Vito, United in Anger, Call Me Kuchu, Hide & Seek, Invisible Men, Not A man in Sight and from India …And The Unclaimed. These films showcase stories of struggle, trauma and happiness of LGBT persons across the world."
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.
