Hindi
UTV Challenges I and B Ministry’s directive on non-smoking scrolls in films
New Delhi: Delhi High Court on Monday sent notices to the Information and Broadcasting and Health Ministries and the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) following a petition by the producers of the Bollywood film Heroine.
The petition by UTV Software Communication, which has produced the Kareena Kapoor-starrer (slated for release on 21 September), has challenged the I&B Ministry for imposing the mandatory condition of displaying a “static” anti-smoking message during smoking scenes in the film.
Justice Rajiv Shakdhar sought responses of the respondents by 10 September and directed the CBFC to watch the film and file its report in a sealed cover before the next date of hearing.
The petitioner sought quashing of the I&B ministry‘s 2 August letter imposing the condition on filmmakers to display the “static” anti-smoking message during smoking scenes.
The petitioner has urged that the CBFC should issue the certificate for the release of the film without any conditions.
The filmmaker said that the I&B Ministry has in its letter issued on 2 August requested the CBFC to advise filmmakers to ensure “a 20-second anti-smoking message as approved by the Health Ministry with voice over of the actors who are seen smoking in the film to be displayed at the beginning and in the middle (after interval) of the film.”
The ministry had issued the letter pursuant to its 27 October 2011 notification in terms of the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply) Rules.
The petitioner alleged that in addition to this, the ministry imposed another condition: that “a static anti-smoking message be displayed for the duration of smoking scene in the film”, and urged the court to get these conditions removed as it will distract the audience from the main script.
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.
