Hindi
Short films get recognition in IFFI competition
NEW DELHI: For the first time, the forthcoming International Film Festival of India in Goa will not only have competition for short films but also a unique business platform for short and documentary films to give impetus to the short film movement.
Created by the Entertainment Society of Goa (ESG) and the Directorate of Film Festivals, the Short Film Centre’s business platform is being organised from 23 November to 1 December as part of the 39th IFFI.
The platform will bring together 5,000 industry professionals through a series of events. Registration is open through www.reelport.com and www.shortfilmcenter.org. The last date for registration is 15 October.
The SFC will have film buyers, film funding agencies, film festival organisers and film makers.
ESG Chief Executive Officer Manoj Srivastava told indiantelevision.com that SFC will have two competitions – International competition for shorts under 30 minutes and another on shorts and documentary films on environmental issues – that will compete for the Vedanta Sesa Goa and the Vasudha Awards with a combined prize money of approximately $30,000.
This is in addition to the National Film Development Corporation’s Film Bazaar at Marriott Resort in Goa from 26 to 29 November.
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.
