Hindi
Rajpal Yadav would like to portray former PM Lal Bahadur Shastri
NEW DELHI: Actor Rajpal Yadav, who has acted in about 150 films so far of which majority were comedy, said he would love to portray Lal Bahadur Shastri if given the chance.
Yadav denied that he played in meaningless comedies, adding that Indian films in general always have a message to convey even if it is a comedy film. He also said he had played negative roles in around 20 films.
Yadav was in the capital with actors Neha Pawar and Sanjana Singh, and producer Bharat Bansal in connection with his latest film ‘Thoda Lutf Thoda Ishq’ releasing tomorrow.
Speaking specifically about his forthcoming film, he said the message was that humans attempt too many things at the same time instead of settling down to something and taking it seriously.
He described the actor as a horse on whom the director rides to steer him to a particular direction.
He was happy that the film was shot in Uttar Pradesh. This was not merely because he belongs to that state, but he felt that the state had a lot to offer to filmmakers and the state government was also offering help in this.
Both Neha Pawar and Sanjana Singh said they had felt nervous initially working with Yadav, but he soon put them at ease.
Pawar said, “This is a comedy film and it was really great working with Rajpal Yadav.”
Singh shared an incident during the shoot saying, “When I gave a good shot, Rajpal asked everyone to clap for me.”
Bansal said people do not tend to take Yadav seriously but he not only teaches values to his friends in the film, but also taught a lot to his accompanying crew during the shooting of the film.
The film has been directed by Sachin Gupta and also stars Hitesh Tejwani, Sanjay Mishra, Rakesh Bedi, and Bhavita Anand. The music is by Vikram Khajuria.
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.
