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Biography of

Early life and education :

Shyam Benegal, was born in a Brahmin family on 14 December 1934 in Trimulgherry, Secunderabad then a BritishCantonment, and now a twin city of the state capital, . It was here, at age twelve that he made his first film, on a camera given to him by his photographer father Sridhar B. Benegal. He received an M.A. in Economics, fromNizam College, Osmania University, Hyderabad. It

was here that he formed the Hyderabad Film Society.

Family

Benegal is related to the famous film director and actor Dutt; his paternal grandmother and Guru Dutt's maternal grandmother were sisters, both nominally Konkan is speaking Chitrapur Saraswats from Uttara Kannadadistrict of Karnataka.

Early career

He started his career working in 1959, as an advertising copywriter, at a Bombay-based advertising agency, Lintas Advertising, where he steadily rose to become a creative head. Meanwhile, he made his first documentary inGujarati, Gher Betha Ganga (Ganges at Doorsteps) in 1962. His first feature film though, had to wait another decade, while he worked on the script.

In 1963 he started a brief stint with another advertising agency called ASP (Advertising, Sales and Promotion).During his advertising years, he directed over 900 sponsored documentaries and advertising films.

Between 1966 and 1973, Shyam also taught at the Film and Television Institute of (FTII), , and twice served as the institute's chairman, (1980–83) and (1989–92). By this time he already

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started making documentaries. One of his early documentaries A Child of the Streets (1967) garnered him wide acclaim, in all he has made over 70 documentary and short films.

Soon, he was awarded the Homi Bhabha Fellowship (1970–72), which allowed him to work at the Children Television Workshop, New York, and later at Boston's WGBH-TV.

Feature films :

After returning to Bombay, he received independent financing for his film and Ankur (The Seedling) was finally made in 1973. It was a story of economic and sexual exploitation from his home state, Andhra Pradesh, and Benegal instantly shot to fame. The film also introduced actors, and Anant Nag and won Shyam Benegal the 1975 National Film Award for Second Best Feature Film. Shabana Azmi won the National Film Award for Best Actress.

The success that New India Cinema enjoyed in the 1970s and early 1980s could largely be attributed to Shyam Benegal's quartet:Ankur (1973),Nishant(1975),(1976) and Bhumika(1977). Benegal used a variety of new actors mainly from the FTII and NSD like , Shabana Azmi, , , Kulbhushan Kharbanda and .

In Benegal's next effort, Nishant (Night's End) (1975), a teacher's wife is abducted and gang-raped by fourzamindars and officialdom turns a deaf ear to the distraught husband's pleas for help. Manthan (The Churning) (1976) is a film on rural empowerment and is set against the backdrop of Gujarat's fledgling dairy industry. For the first time, over five lakh rural farmers in Gujarat, contributed Rs 2 each, and thus became film's producers. Upon its release, truckloads of farmers came to see "their film", making it a success at the box office. After this trilogy on rural oppression, he made a biopic, Bhumika (The Role) (1977), broadly based on the life of well-knownMarathi stage and film actress of the 1940s, (played by Smita Patil) who led a flamboyant and unconventional life. The main character sets out on at an individual search for identity and self- fulfillment, at same the time grappling with exploitation by men.

Meanwhile, in the early 70's, Shyam made 21 film modules for Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE), sponsored by UNICEF. This allowed him to interact with children of SITE and many folk artists. Eventually he used many of these children in his feature length rendition of the classic folk tale, Charandas Chor (Charandas the Thief) in 1975. He made the film for the Children Films Society of India. To quote film critic, Derek Malcolm:

"…what Benegal has done is to paint a magnificent visual recreation of those extraordinary days and one that is also sensitive to the agonies and predicament of a talented woman whose need for security was only matched by her insistence on freedom.

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The 80s

Following the success of these four films, Benegal was backed by film star Shashi for whom he made Junoon(1978) and Kalyug (1981). The former is an interracial love story set amidst the turbulent period of the Indian Mutiny of 1857. Kalyug, was based on the Mahābhārata and was not a big hit although both of the films won Filmfare Best Movie Awards in 1980 and 1982 respectively.

Benegal's next film, Mandi (1983) was a satirical comedy about politics and prostitution, starring Shabana Azmi andSmita Patil. Later, working from his own story, based on the last days of Portuguese in Goa, in the early 1960s, Shyam explored human relationship in Trikaal (1985).

In the 1980s, however, with the collapse of the New Cinema movement, Benegal's films had not had proper releases. He turned to TV where he directed serials like Yatra (1986) for the Indian Railways, and one of the biggest projects undertaken on Indian Television, the 53-episode television serial based on Jawaharlal Nehru's book,Discovery of India (Bharat Ek Khoj) (1988).

Soon, Shyam Benegal stepped beyond traditional narrative films and took to biographical material to achieve greater freedom of expression.His first venture in this genre was with a documentary film based on ’s life, titled, Satyajit Ray, the Filmmaker, in 1985. This was followed by similar biographical works like (1996), and , which was written by film critic Khalid Mohammed.

The 90s and beyond

The 90s saw Shyam Benegal making a trilogy on Indian Muslim women, starting with (1995), Sardari Begum(1996), and Zubeidaa (2001). With Zubeidaa, he entered the mainstream for the first time, as it starred top Bollywood star Karishma Kapoor, and boasted music by A. R. Rahman.

In 1992, he made another film, (Seventh Horse of the Sun) based on a novel by Dharmavir Bharati, which won the 1993 National Film Award for Best Feature Film in . In 1996 he made another film based on a book, The Making of the Mahatma, based on Fatima Meer's, The Apprenticeship of a Mahatma. This turn to biographical material, resulted in Netaji : The Forgotten Hero, his 2005 English language film. He criticised the Indian caste system in Samar (1999). The movie went on to win the National Film Award for Best Film.

Shyam Benegal is the current President of the Federation of Film Societies of India. He owns a production company called Sahyadri Films.

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He has also authored three books based on his own films, The Churning with (1984), based onManthan; Satyajit Ray (1988), based on his biographical film, Satyajit Ray, Filmmaker; and The Marketplace (1989) which was based on Mandi.

Current projects

His 2008 film, entitled , stars and . The film's music is byShantanu Moitra,and it is produced by Chetan Motiwalla. Shyam Benegal is slated to direct an epic musicalChamki Chameli inspired by George Bizet's classic Spanish opera Carmen. The story revolves around the eponymous Chamki, a beautiful gypsy girl with a fiery temper and is written by . The music is by A. R. Rahman and the lyrics are written by .

In March 2010, Benegal released the political satire .

One of Benegal's future projects is a film based on Noor Inayat Khan - a descendant of Tipu Sultan, who served as a British-Indian spy during World War II.

Personal life

Shyam Benegal is married to Neera Benegal. He is also involved with the based film school Whistling Woods International as chairman of the academic council.

Filmography

Main article: Shyam Benegal filmography

Awards

Shyam Benegal has won the following awards and nominations.

National

National Film Awards

. 1975 Second Best Feature Film for Ankur . 1976 Best Feature Film in Hindi for Nishant . 1977 Best Feature Film in Hindi for Manthan . 1978 Best Screenplay for Bhumika . 1979 Best Feature Film in Hindi for Junoon . 1982 Best Feature Film in Hindi for Arohan . 1984 Best Historical Reconstruction for Nehru

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. 1985 Best Biographical Film for Satyajit Ray, Filmmaker . 1986 Best Director for Trikaal . 1993 Best Feature Film in Hindi for Suraj Ka Satvan Ghoda . 1995 Best Feature Film in Hindi for Mammo . 1996 Best Feature Film in English for The Making of the Mahatma . 1997 Best Feature Film in Urdu for Sardari Begum . 1999 Best Feature Film for Samar . 1999 Best Feature Film on Family Welfare for Hari-Bhari . 2001 Best Feature Film in Hindi for Zubeidaa . 2005 Dutt Award for Best Feature Film on National Integration for Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose: The Forgotten Hero

. 1980 Best Director for Junoon . 1982 Best Director for Kalyug: Nominated

International

Cannes Film Festival

. 1976: Golden Palm: Nishant: Nominated Berlin International Film Festival

. 1974 Golden Berlin Bear for Ankur: Nominated Moscow International Film Festival

. 1981 Golden Prize: Kalyug . 1997 Golden St. George: Sardari Begum: Nominated

Honours

. 1970 Homi Bhabha Fellowship (1970–72) . 1976 Padma Shri . 1989 Sovietland Nehru Award . 1991 . 2005

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