Veteran filmmaker Shyam Benegal handed away right this moment in Mumbai on the age of 90. Filmfare spoke to actor Manoj Bajpayee who labored with Shyam Benegal in Zubeidaa. Recalling, Benegal’s creative aptitude and his imaginative and prescient as a storyteller, Bajpayee spoke straight from the center. Excerpts…
Because the time I landed in Bombay within the ’90s I might make common journeys to Shyam Benegal’s workplace in Tardeo. On just a few events, I mustered the braveness to ask him to solid me as properly. Lastly, he solid me in Zubeidaa (2001) and I used to be shocked that he selected to solid me within the function of a prince. I bear in mind, whereas capturing for the movie, I questioned him on his alternative of common actors and he defined to me, Zubeidaa got here from a movie background and was married to royalty, so it wanted a way of historical past to be married with common tradition. I used to be aghast that he selected me to be the prince and sometimes questioned him about it. However he was satisfied along with his alternative.
I bear in mind being intimidated; whereas doing intimate sequences with my co-stars in Zubeidaa and Shyam ji would inform me, overlook your small city or village morality, assume just like the prince would. It helped me shed my inhibitions. I noticed that he was additionally open to discussing and instructed me, don’t be slowed down solely by movies, maintain an open thoughts, by no means cease studying.
On the peak of economic cinema and the Amitabh Bachchan wave, Shyam babu made tour de drive cinema, which some individuals referred to as as parallel cinema. He spawned a brand new technology of filmmakers due to his personal distinctive voice and filmmaking. From Ankur (1974) to Nishant (1975) and Bhumika (1977), Junoon (1978) to Mammo (1994), have a look at his legacy and the way he retained his unique voice and spirit.
He would by no means get offended or say something when different filmmakers or actors would deride his cinema or look down upon it. He was true to his imaginative and prescient. A real doyen of cinema as a medium of artwork. He redefined it in a time when it was powerful to be making movies aside from business movies.
