Hindi
Special celebrations planned to commemorate 100 years of Begum Akhtar
NEW DELHI: As the nation celebrates the year-long birth centenary celebrations of noted classical singer Begum Akhtar, commemorative coins of Rs 100 and Rs 5 were issued today by union culture minister Shripad Naik to symbolically mark the start of the celebrations.
Noted singers Rita Ganguly (Dadra), Shashank Shekhar (Thumri) and Prabhati Mukherjee (Ghazal) gave an impressive performance on the occasion.
DD Bharati is also marking the day with an exclusively curated show, Akhtari ki Mehfil aur Kaifi Azmi at 9 pm with repeat telecast at 5 am and 1 pm.
The show by Yatindra Mishra and Kumud Diwan features the Begum and celebrated Ghazal writer and reciter of that era, Kaifi Azmi and few others. Begum Akhtar’s archival performances were hand-picked and woven together for this telecast where Kafi Azmi will be personally present.
Akhtar Bai Faizabadi, popularly called Begum Akhtar (07 October 1914 –30 October 1974) was a famous Indian singer of ghazal, dadra and thumri. She received the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for vocal music and was awarded Padam Shri and Padam Bhushan by government of India. She was given the title of mallika-e-ghazal (queen of ghazals). On completion of 100 years of this versatile genius, the government has decided to commemorate the occasion. With this end in view, a National Implementation Committee (NIC) under the chairmanship of the culture minister was constituted to chalk out programmes and activities that may be taken up during the commemoration year.
Some of the initiatives which will be taken up during the commemoration period are centenary festivals in Delhi, Lucknow, Hyderabad, Bhopal and Kolkata, web portal and digitisation/ documentation etc., of the legacy of Begum Akhtar, exhibitions and workshops, publications, seminars and a scholarship to young artists.
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.
