New Delhi: BJP MP Manoj Tiwari has described the demise of famous filmmaker Shyam Benegal as a big loss for Indian cinema.
The filmmaker, known for his contribution to parallel cinema, died on Monday at the age of 90. Benegal breathed his last at 6:38 pm at Wockhardt Hospital in Mumbai, where he was undergoing treatment for chronic kidney disease.
Speaking to ANI, the BJP MP praised Benegal’s contribution to cinema and shared, “Shyam Benegal ji’s demise is a big loss for our Indian cinema. Shyam Benegal is considered a big name in the field of artistic films. He came up with such topics.” Which were about the problems of villages and extremely poor families on the silver screen. When I heard the news of Shyam Benegal’s demise, I was very sad and at this time the entire Bollywood is sad and gave a very high place to Indian cinema…”
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 has been awarded the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi seven times and received the V. Shantaram Lifetime Achievement Award in 2018.
Born on December 14, 1934 in Hyderabad into a Konkani-speaking Chitrapur Saraswat Brahmin family, Benegal collaborated extensively with FTII and NSD actors, including Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri, Smita Patil, Shabana Azmi, Kulbhushan Kharbanda and Amrish Puri. .
Addressing relevant socio-political themes with remarkable depth, his films left a lasting impact on audiences. 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. The biographical film, shot extensively in both the countries during the COVID-19 pandemic, added another feather to his cap.
Apart from feature films, Benegal also made significant contributions to documentaries and television. His iconic series Bharat Ek Khoj and Samvidhan remain standards in Indian television.
He also served as 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).
