MUMBAI: Bollywood celebrities Boman Irani, Divya Dutta, Shreyas Talpade and other actors paid tribute to legendary filmmaker Shyam Benegal who passed away on Monday at the age of 90. Shyam Benegal breathed his last at Wockhardt Hospital, Mumbai Central, where he was undergoing treatment for chronic kidney disease.
On the demise of veteran filmmaker Shyam Benegal, while speaking to ANI, actor Boman Irani said, ” I admire him, I loved him truly…I got to learn from him, perform with him, spend time with him, I travelled the world with him. Those were the best days of my life.”
‘Bandish Bandit’ actress Divya Dutta mourned the loss of Shyam Benegal and called his death a ‘huge personal loss.’
She said, “Legend and an era ended. I have no words right now. Processing. It’s a huge personal loss.”
Benegal’s films, including Ankur, Nishant, Manthan, and Bhumika, established him as a pioneer of the Indian parallel cinema movement in the 1970s and 1980s. Benegal was honoured with the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi seven times and received the V. Shantaram Lifetime Achievement Award in 2018.
Shyam Benegal’s comedy film, ‘Welcome To Sajjanpur’ star Shreyas Talpade recalled his collaboration with the director. He said, “We all got inspired by him. The work he has done in the film industry, it will be very difficult for people like us to touch that level…I consider myself very lucky because I got an opportunity to work with him in one of his favourite films Sajjanpur and those memories are as fresh as they were in 2000. So I considered myself very lucky and we all will miss him very dearly.”
Shreyas further narrated the qualities of Shyam which set the filmmaker apart from the other directors.
“He used to make films with his conviction. He used to stick to the conviction he thought was right and used to make films in the same way. At the same time, he was very disciplined, he gave a lot of confidence to the actors and used to pamper a lot. He used to give a lot of freedom to the actors and believed in making a good product together.”
Pratik Gandhi who broke to fame with the web series ‘Scam 1993’ also paid tribute to the ‘Manthan’ director by calling his films a complete learning institute for actors and filmmakers. He said,
“I couldn’t work with him and that sorrow will always be there, I worked with his daughter and I knew him through her. His films like ‘Kaliyug’ and ‘Manthan’, are a complete institute in itself, a complete study in itself. For filmmakers as well as for actresses as well as writers.”
Born on December 14, 1934, in a Konkani-speaking Chitrapur Saraswat Brahmin family in Hyderabad, Benegal collaborated extensively with actors from FTII and NSD, including Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri, Smita Patil, Shabana Azmi, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, and Amrish Puri.
His films left an indelible impact on audiences, addressing relevant socio-political themes with remarkable depth. His most recent project, Mujib: The Making of a Nation (2023), was an India-Bangladesh co-production depicting the life of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father of Bangladesh.
Shot extensively in both countries during the COVID-19 pandemic, the biographical film added another feather to his illustrious cap.
In addition to feature films, Benegal contributed significantly to documentaries and television. His iconic series Bharat Ek Khoj and Samvidhaan remain benchmarks in Indian television.
He also served as the Director of the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) from 1980 to 1986 and was a member of prestigious juries, including the 14th Moscow International Film Festival (1985) and the 35th National Film Awards (1988). (ANI)