Hindi
Prague to release next month after tangle with censors over a song
NEW DELHI: Prague by Ashish R Shukla which has already done a global festival circuit round is being released on 6 September.
The Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) had raised objection to one song from the film –Bottal khol. Composed by Tony Kakkar and sung by Neha Kakkar and Tony, the number got held up at the CBFC, resulting in delay of the film’s release.
Under the banner Glamour Struck Productions Prague had been conceived and produced by Rohit Khaitan and made in association with Maxwell Entertainment. Directed by Ashish R. Shukla (creative head – Dev D), it stars Chandan Roy Sanyal, Elena Kazan, Arfi Lamba and Mayank.
The Music is by Atif Afzal and some other guest composers, Lyrics by Varun Grover, Sound by Sanjay Chaturvedi, Editing by Meghna Manchanda Sen, Action by Parvez Shaikh, Art direction by Siddharth Mathawan & Mrinal Das, DI & VFX by Reliance Media Works.
For the first time, three music companies – Crescendo (earlier known as BMG Crescendo), Universal Music and Times Music is releasing the music of the film.
The album of Prague has more than 25 sound tracks and background pieces based on several themes which will spread on digital platforms and retail chains worldwide. Prague audio CDs are now available at all music stores.
Prague is a city with a history of heritage, myth and superstition. The film shows a passionate architect with hang ups and delusions about love and life, a Czech gypsy girl looking for her identity and love, and a mean friend. All of them come together, interfering, manipulating, coaxing and torturing each other as their search for peace, freedom and love continues.
This film is a psychological thrilling ride which takes one to the darkest corners of the mind, the shut down alleys of the soul and the graveyard of the heart.
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.
