Hindi
Sarika and Jahnu Barua to head film juries at 7 Jagran Film Festival
MUMBAI: Its official! Renowned actress Sarika and veteran film director Jahnu Barua will head the two Film Juries at the 7 Jagran Film Festival, this year.
With over 90 films behind her, Sarika will head a five Member Indian Feature Film Jury for the Festival’s prestigious section, Indian Showcase. One of the most sought after sections of the festival, Indian Showcase stands apart for its class and presentation of awards. In the past few years, the Best feature Film Award has been presented to Marathi and Bengali language films. The best actor award last year was presented to Dulal Sarkar, an actor who is a midget.
Sarika who began her film career as a Child Artist in the film Majhhli Didi (The Middle Sister-1967) a Dharmendra-Meena Kumari starrer went on to make it big with films like Geet Gaata Chal, Khushboo (1975), Jaani Dushman (1979), Kranti (1981), Satte Pe Satta (1982), Razia Sultan (1983), Raj Tilak (1984) and lately Parzania (2005) and many others. Recipient of two National Film Awards Sarika made her television debut in Sony TV’s Yudh which stars Amitabh Bachchan in the lead role. The Jury headed by her will decide on 16 awards in the feature film category.
Padma Bhushan Jahnu Barua is one of India’s foremost Film Directors winning ten National Film Awards. Mostly making his films in Assamese language, Jahnu dabbled into Hindi film making with Maine Gandhi Ko Nahin Maara (I did not kill Gandhi) and Mumbai Cutting. Winner of several international awards, Jahnu Barua will head a three Member International Film Jury. The Jury for Shorts will watch 50 short films to decide on three international awards in the category.
1 July in New Delhi will present Cuba as the focus country at this year’s edition. As part of this initiative, the festival will present a 5-7 film package at the Festival. The films presented will travel to 16 cities of India with the festival.
Speaking on the partnership, Ambassador of Republic of Cuba Oscar J. Martinez Cordovés said,” Its indeed a matter of pride for us to partner with the largest travelling film festival in the world and take Cuban Cinema to so many cities in India. What we would be presenting to the people of India through this partnership is not just our films but a glimpse into our culture, history and contemporary life. I am glad we got this opportunity through Jagran Prakashan and thank them’. “
The Festival each year presents the Cinema of a country. The past years have seen the Cinemas of South Korea, Cyprus and the United States presented in the past editions of the festival. The 7 edition of Jagran Film Festival gets underway at New Delhi’s Siri Fort Auditoria from July 1, 2016 and after travelling through 14 cities will reach Mumbai for the Finale on 26 September 2016.
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.
