Hindi
Rekha and Amitabh Bachchan together in ‘Shamitabh’
MUMBAI: Award winning actor Dhanush, who made his debut in Bollywood with Raanjhana has just wrapped up the shooting of his second hindi film Shamitabh. The latest buzz is that, the film with Dhanush, Akshara Haasan and Amitabh Bachchan in lead will also star yesteryear sensation and an evergreen beauty Rekha.
This was reveled by the Dhanush at the micro-blogging site Twitter, “LOOK whom I’m sharing screen space with, in Shamitabh. The one and only REKHA JI !!! #beautyforever,” he tweeted.
Although it’s not clear whether they will have any scenes together, but Amitabh Bachchan and Rekha will be in a movie together after three decades.
Shamitabh is an upcoming Hindi film scripted and directed by R Balki. The film is jointly produced by Sunil Lulla, R Balki, Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, RK Damani, Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, Sunil Manchanda and Dhanush under their respective production banners. Ilaiyaraaja has composed the soundtrack album and background score for the movie, while cinematography was handled by PC Sreeram
Shamitabh is slated to release worldwide on 6 Feburary 2015.
Last seen together in Silsila, Bachchan and Rekha have co-starred in many movies in the past including like Immaan Dharam (1977), Khoon Pasina (1977), Ganga Ki Saugandh (1978), Muqaddar Ka Sikander (1978), Mr Natwarlal (1979) and Suhaag (1979). She has also dubbed for two Bachchan-starrers; she was Sridevi’s voice in Aakhree Raasta (1986), and also dubbed for Soundarya and Jayasudha in EVV Satyanarayana’s Bollywood debut Sooryavansham (1999)
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.
