Shyam Benegal is considered as one of the pioneers of parallel or alternate cinema in India. On his birthday, 14th December 2015., Osianama, India’s pioneering cultural centre with clubs, focussing on a Indian and world cinema, have inaugurated a festival of Shyam Benegal films.
Shyam Benegal
‘A director’s retrspective -Shyam Benegal, Master class’ was held, which was moderated by Neville Tuli, chief of Osianama and Naseeruddin Shah also joined them on dais. A lot of parallel cinema people were in attendance including, Ratna Pathak Shah, Shama Zaidi, Atul Tiwari, Kiran Shantaram, Dolly Thakore, Rajit Kapoor. Govind Nihalani and Kunal Kapoor (Shashi Kapoor’s son) were present too, who were asked to join Benegal and Shah for discussion at the latter part of discussion.
Neville Tuli with his in-depth knowledge of cinema moderated the Master class intelligently. While discussing about relationship between a director and an actor Shyam Benegal said, “The relationship is not only professional but becomes personal too. And theatre and cinema are two different mediums. In theatre, an actor rules, while in cinema director rules. A nasty director can destroy a brilliant actor.”
Naseer was selected for ‘Nishant’ on the recommendation of Girish Karnad, then the director of FTII and who was also a part of that film. ‘After passing out from NSD, I joined FTII as a passport to hindi film industry. I was lucky to have got a break while still studying at FTII which in a way gave me financial stability which in turn helped me to come to Mumbai,” Naseer was reminiscing.
Shyam Benegal was awarded Padma Shri in 1976 and Padma Bhushan in 1991. He has won seven National film awards for best feature film in Hindi and has been conferred with Dadasaheb Phalke Award for lifetime achievement. The festival is on from 14th December . through 20th December 2015 at Liberty Cinema, marine Lines, Mumbai and will feature films, viz. Junoon, Nishant, Manthan, Bhumika, Trikaal, Nehru (Part 1 & 2), Susman, Mamma, Zubeida, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, Sooraj Ka Saatvan Ghoda, Welcome to Sajjanpur, and his first film Ankur will be the last one to be screened.