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Shyam Benegal is a seven time National Film Award winner. The years past have seen him in advertising. Before long he started making documentaries, biographies and non-commercial movies.
Basics on Shyam Benegal
Shyam Benegal was born in Trimulgherry, Secunderabad, India on the 14th December 1934. He is related to actor Guru Dutt as his paternal grandmother and Dutt’s maternal grandmother were sisters.
Benegal studied at the Nizam College affiliated to the Osmania University, Hyderabad and obtained an M.A (Economics).He brought together the Hyderabad Film Society.
Benegal’s wife is Neera Benegal.
He started working in 1959 at Lintas Advertising as a copywriter and made his way upto it’s creative head. In 1963, he worked briefly at ASP, an advertising agency. He taught at the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune. He held the title of Chairman from 1980 to 1983 and then again from 1989 to 1992.
After being awarded the Homi Bhabha Fellowship he took up a Children Television Workshop in New York, USA. He also gathered some experience at WGBH TV, Boston, USA.
He was the Director of National Film Development Corporation for six years.
Sahyadri Films is Benegal’s production company.
He is the chairman of Whistling Woods International, a film school in Mumbai.
Books by Benegal
While most write books and then turn them into movies, Benegal worked the other way round. The books he penned were based on the films that he made like The Churning (1984) based on Manthan which he co-wrote with Vijay Tendulkar; Satyajit Ray (1988) was based on Satyajit Ray, Film-maker and Mandi’s book version The Marketplace (1989).
Documentaries
Shyam Benegal’s first documentary was Gher Betha Ganga (1962), in Gujrati. A Child of the Streets (1967) was one of his seventy short films and documentaries.
Shyam Benegal’s Movies
Ankur (1973) starring Anant Nag and Shabana Azmi was based on a real life incident and was set in Andhra Pradesh. It won the National Film Award for Second Best Feature Film and was also nominated for the Golden Berlin Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival.
Nishant (1975) which was written by Vijay Tendulkar and starred Shabana Azmi and Smita Patil explored exploitation of women in rural India. It won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi. Manthan (1976) told the story of farmers in Gujarat and the farmers were the producers of the film. The movie won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi.
Bhumika (1977) was based on Hansa Wadkar, an actress from the 40s. Her role was played by Smita Patel. It won the Filmfare Best Movie Award and a National Film Award for Best Screenplay which was received jointly by Girish Karnad, Satyadev Dubey and Shyam Benegal.
In the 80s, he made movies like Kalyug (1981), Mandi (1983) and Trikaal (1985). Kalyug which featured Rekha and Shashi Kapoor was a modern day take on the epic Mahabharata. Mandi was based on an Urdu short story by Ghulam Abbas called Aanandi. Shabana Azmi and Smita Patil played prostitutes. Trikaal was set in Goa as it was in 1961 when the Portuguese started moving away. It centered around a Christian family. Benegal won the National Film Award for Best Directing.
Mammo (1995), Sardari Begum (1996) and Zubeidaa (2001) was a trilogy about a boy Riyaz who is abandoned by his father and whose mother has passed away. He is left in the care of his grandmother and her sister. In Zubeidaa, the focus shifts on the Riyaz’s mother Zubeidaa which was played by Karishma Kapoor. All the three films won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film.
His other winners were Suraj Ka Satvan Ghoda (1993), The Making of the Mahatma (1996) and Hari Bhari.
In 2008, his release Welcome to Sajjanpur, a comedy, was widely appreciated. His next movie Chamki Chameli, is inspired by George Bizet’s opera Carmen and A R Rahman is the music composer. The other project that he is working on is based on Tipu Sultan’s cousin Noor Inayat Khan who was a spy.
Shyam Benegal is also the recipient of the Padma Shri (1976), Padma Bhushan (1991) and Dadasaheb Phalke Award (2006).
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