Hindi
Prabho Shivaji Raja- The journey of great Maratha emperor releasing this year
MUMBAI: This summer Prabho Shivaji Raja an animated epic/historical drama film based on the life of warrior Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaja is all set for its theatrical release.
The 100 minute film has been made after two years of research and post- production challenge, with the help of renowned senior historians like Neenad Bedekar and Baba Saheb Purandere. Using historical proof, letters, document and bakhar (scripts written on Shivaji in 16th century).
More than 2.50 lakh sketches have been used to develop fine quality animations for the film’s characters and around 9,000 backgrounds painted; combining traditional techniques of animation with a new technology to create this film. Every frame of every character is crated on a cell (PAPER) frame by frame to get accuracy in movement.
“Animation is ideal way of storytelling and Shivaji is the ideal character for this form and we want the viewers to forget that it is a movie, a make believe world. We want it to be universal in its appeal and transcend boundaries of race, community and language and appeal to audiences in India and globally alike,” said direct Nilesh Muley.
Prabho Shivaji Raja is produced by infinity visual and MEFAC, the film is narrated by senior actor Sachin Khedekar. Film’s music direction is by Bharat Balwali and songs sung by leading singers like Shankar Mahadevan and Swapnil Bandodkar.
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.
