Hindi
Veteran film and TV actor Om Puri passes away
NEW DELHI: Veteran actor Om Puri, who gave countless memorable performances in movies of diverse genres and also on television shows, died at his residence in Mumbai this morning after a massive heart attack. He was 66.
‘Puri passed away this morning due to a heart attack at his residence in suburban Andheri. It’s shocking,’ a family source was quoted by PTI as saying.
From Bollywood to Hollywood, from independent to art films to television, the noted actor, known for his versatility, gave several acclaimed performances. Puri featured in several Indian, Pakistani, British and Hollywood mainstream commercial films. However, as many of his fans said Puri would be remembered more for his stellar roles in TV serial ‘Tamas’ and film ‘Ardh Satya’. He was awarded the Padma Shri, the country’s fourth highest civilian award, in 1990.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi condoled Puri’s demise and recalled his long career in theatre and films. Minister for information and broadcasting M. Venkaiah Naidu too condoled Puri’s death and remembered his contribution to the Indian film and TV industry. Bollywood celebrities, including Akshay Kumar, Karan Johar, Anupam Kher, Javed Akhtar and Mahesh Bhatt, expressed grief over Puri’s demise, calling it a huge loss to Indian cinema.
Born in Ambala, Haryana, in a Punjabi family, Puri graduated from the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune. He was also an alumnus of the 1973 class of National School of Drama, where Naseeruddin Shah was a batch mate. He made his film debut in the 1976 Marathi film ‘Ghashiram Kotwal’.
Some of his notable films include ‘Bhavni Bhavai’, ‘Sadgati, ‘Ardh Satya’, ‘Mirch Masala’, ‘Dharavi’, ‘Aakrosh’, ‘Maachis’, ‘Gupt’, ‘Dhoop’ and ‘Yuva’. He earned international fame in many British films, such as ‘My Son the Fanatic’, ‘East Is East’ and ‘The Parole Officer’. He also appeared in Hollywood films like ‘City of Joy’, ‘Wolf’, ‘The Ghost and the Darkness’, among others.
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.
