Hindi
Shabana Azmi approached to star in Zero Dark Thirty
MUMBAI: Kathryn Bigelow, who just wrapped up a week’s shooting for her film Zero Dark Thirty based on the killing of Osama bin Laden, has reportedly talked to Shabana Azmi to star in her film mired with controversies.
It is said that the Hurt Locker director had made up her mind to cast some prominent actors of Pakistani origin, but nothing transpired once she knew that she would not be able to shoot because she didn’t get the required permission.
Now she has decided to cast Indian actors. However, no name has yet been finalised as to who would essay the role of Osama bin Laden. Said a team member on condition of anonymity, “While we have finalised our American cast members, Kathryn is yet to take a final call on the actor who would be playing Osama.”
The film that follows the capture of the world‘s most wanted terrorist was originally going to be shot in Abbottabad in Pakistan, where bin Laden was captured. However, after being denied access by the government, Bigelow moved production to the Indian town of Chandigarh.
There, the crew designed the area to look like the Pakistan town of Lahore and had extras dressed in Pakistani garb. Here too, the film faced protests from people who were against parts of India turned into that of Pakistan with their flag flying high. However, the problem was sorted out.
This isn‘t the first time that Bigelow has run into trouble. In January, the CIA opened an official investigation into the project over whether the Oscar-winning director and screenwriter Mark Boal had leaked classified material regarding the recent capture and assassination of the late al Qaeda leader.
Zero Dark Thirty is set to hit theatres later in 2012
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.
