Legendary Indian filmmaker Shyam Benegal passes away at 90

iNDICA NEWS BUREAU-

Veteran filmmaker Shyam Benegal, who pioneered the parallel film movement in India, passed away in Mumbai on Monday, December 23. He was 90.

The filmmaker was suffering from a kidney ailment for a while, and was admitted to Wockhardt hospital in Mumbai.

His funeral will be held in Mumbai at 10:00 am on Tuesday.

Benegal is widely considered as one of the greatest filmmakers after the 1970s, and received several honors like 18 National Film Awards, a Nandi Award, and the Dadasaheb Phalke Award — India’s highest award in the field of cinema. He also received Padma Shri, and Padma Bhushan.

The filmmaker recently celebrated his 90th birthday in Mumbai. He was born in Hyderabad to Sridhar B. Benegal, who was prominent in the field of photography. He was the second cousin of the legendary Indian auteur Guru Dutt.

Benegal started his career as a copywriter, and made his first Documentary film in Gujarati, ‘Gher Betha Ganga’ in 1962. His first four feature films ‘Ankur’ (1973), ‘Nishant’ (1975), ‘Manthan’ (1976) and ‘Bhumika’ (1977) made him a pioneer of the new wave film movement of that period.

He also served as the Director of the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) from 1980 to 1986.

His film ‘Mandi’ (1983), is known for its satire on politics and prostitution. The film starred Shabana Azmi and the late actress Smita Patil. Later, working from his own story, based on the last days of Portuguese in Goa, in the early 1960s, Benegal explored human relationships in ‘Trikal’.

The filmmaker was known for his evolution. When the Hindi cinema entered a period of lull in the 1980s with even the mainstream films struggling at the box-office after the introduction of VCR, the fundings for the parallel films were considerably cut-down. Many filmmakers of the parallel film movement couldn’t make movies in the absence of funds. However, Benegal turned to the new medium of television. His show ‘Bharat Ek Khoj’ is considered to be one of the iconic shows in India.

(Photo courtesy: x.com/RahulGandhi)