Hindi
Theatre’s role in cinema, where stage meets screen
MUMBAI: Curtains up, lights on, and action, but the roots of cinema lie on the stage. At a lively session on “The Power of Theatre in Cinema’s DNA,” celebrated actors and creators revealed how the world of theatre continues to shape the Indian screen.
Moderated by National School of Drama director Chittaranjan Tripathy, the panel featured Swanand Kirkire, Raghubir Yadav, Rajpal Yadav, and Mita Vashisht. The discussion explored how theatrical training provides actors with depth, discipline, and authenticity that resonate on screen.
Swanand Kirkire, a multi-talented lyricist, actor, and singer, called cinema an extension of theatre. “Drama happens in one space and one time on stage. Cinema takes the same drama and expands it across spaces and moments,” he said. He highlighted that every great film begins with understanding drama, the conflict between forces, and the forward motion of storytelling.
Raghubir Yadav stressed theatre’s irreplaceable role in building a performer. “You can do a play without cinema, but you cannot do a film without a play. Theatre gives you everything: emotion, nuance, life. Cinema may teach dialogue memorisation, but theatre teaches you living on stage,” he explained.
Rajpal Yadav reflected on theatre as a teacher of life itself. “The collaborative essence of stagecraft and how understanding every role, from actors to carpenters, enriches cinema. Theatre teaches zero, cinema teaches hero. When theatre and cinema come together, every element of performance becomes alive,” he said.
Mita Vashisht discussed the technical interplay between theatre and film. While theatre delivers a live connection with audiences, cinema requires technology to capture and convey the same energy. She also pointed out that concepts like framing, positioning of actors, and set design in cinema are borrowed directly from theatre, referencing techniques like Mise en Scène.
The session celebrated theatre as the backbone of cinema, emphasising that even with all the technology in modern filmmaking, the foundational lessons of stagecraft: discipline, collaboration, and emotional truth, remain essential. As Kirkire summarised, “Theatre gives cinema its DNA. Without it, the soul of performance is incomplete.”
From the intricacies of acting to the careful orchestration of a set, the discussion made it clear, the spotlight may have shifted from stage to screen, but the heart of storytelling continues to beat in the theatre.
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.
