Hindi
Superboys of Malegaon film shines at the 68th BFI London Film Festival
Mumbai: Amazon MGM Studios, Excel Entertainment, and Tiger Baby Production took the spotlight at the 68th BFI London Film Festival with their much-anticipated film Superboys of Malegaon. Following its successful world premiere at TIFF, the film garnered a strong positive response from a full audience in London. It was screened on 10 October at Vue West End.
Directed by Reema Kagti and written by Varun Grover, Superboys of Malegaon is a lighthearted look into the unique filmmaking culture of Malegaon, India. The story follows a group of amateur filmmakers in a small town as they create parody films, capturing themes of community, resilience, and the magic of cinema. The film highlights the determination and creativity of the town’s residents while offering a heartfelt portrayal of their filmmaking journey.
The screening saw the attendance of key team members, including Ritesh Sidhwani, Zoya Akhtar, Reema Kagti, and Adarsh Gourav, alongside several international celebrities, critics, and cinema enthusiasts. Superboys of Malegaon was widely praised at the festival for its authentic narrative, blending humour, creativity, and emotion.
The BFI London Film Festival, known for featuring innovative and diverse films, welcomed the movie, which resonated with audiences worldwide through its portrayal of friendship and filmmaking in a small town. Following the festival, excitement has grown for its upcoming release.
Produced by Ritesh Sidhwani, Farhan Akhtar, Zoya Akhtar, and Reema Kagti, Superboys of Malegaon stars Adarsh Gourav, Vineet Kumar Singh, and Shashank Arora. It will be released in Indian theatres in January 2025, followed by a global theatrical release, and will stream on Prime Video across India and in 240 countries and territories worldwide.
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.
