Hindi
Akshay Kumar to topline ‘Airlift’ – the untold story of the world’s largest human evacuation ever
MUMBAI: One of India’s biggest moments of triumph, virtually untold to date, is now being recreated on the silver screen in the form of ‘Airlift’. The film, to be helmed by ace ad film-maker Raja Krishna Menon will feature Akshay Kumar in the lead and supported by an interesting and highly talented ensemble.
Airlift is the story of Indians stranded in Kuwait during the traumatic time of the Gulf War. A story of how they, with the help of Ranjit Katyal (Akshay Kumar), manage to survive the Iraqi invasion, and against all odds travel a thousand kilometers across the border into Amman, Jordan. From Amman, 1,70,000 Indians were brought home by the largest and the most successful evacuation ever attempted by any country, in the history of the world. Over 59 days, the Indian government systematically flew over 488 Air India commercial flights into a war zone to evacuate all 1,70,000 Indians and safely bring them back home. Airlift is an uplifting and entertaining edge-of-the-seat thriller and is the story of the biggest ever human evacuation in the history of mankind.
Airlift, presented by Nikhil Advani, is a co-production between T-series, Cape of Good Films, Crouching Tiger and Emmay Entertainment.
Talking about the film, Nikhil Advani says, “Airlift is a story that every Indian will be proud to hear. It is a story that needs to be told and I am happy that we are able to bring this unique tale of triumph of the human spirit, and of our country, to the big screen. It also gives me an opportunity to work with Akshay once again, a partnership that I have always cherished”
Bhushan Kumar, the presenter had this to add on what made him back this project, “What drives me to a film is its genre, concept and the conviction I have in the subject. When I first heard the story of Airlift, I fell in love with it and was convinced. I normally back films with good music but Airlift goes beyond great music and has an exceptional screenplay. I firmly believe that once this story comes alive on celluloid, the audience will equally appreciate the film. The role that Akshay plays is filled with heroism and I am sure that he will add immensely to the portrayal of the character on screen”
Filming beings April 2015
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.
