| Shyam Benegal Unplugged By Kavita Chibber Narula
The
pioneer of patallel cinema hates the label.
He
is called the pioneer of parallel cinema, a label he
hates, " I make my films based on sensibilities, and
I cannot understand this labeling." His films have won
national awards galore and he has been awarded both
the Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan, but film director
Shyam Benegal says he doesn't want to be put on a pedestal.
"Its like being put on a shelf and I don't think I am
ready for that!" A man of many talents, a deep thinker
and an intellectual, Shyam Benegal remains humble and
grounded. He sat down for an interview with Little India's
Kavita Chhibber Narula in Atlanta.
Tell me the early influences in your life.
The early influence of course was of my parents. My
father was a professional photographer and a very fine
amateur painter, and a very keen home movie buff. He
used to make home movies with a 60 mm camera. We came
from a very large family of eight children and so as
each new child was born my father would film them growing
up until the next child arrived. All these films were
our family entertainment, because whenever anybody came
for holidays, cousins etc we would watch those movies,
plus classics that he would purchase. I consciously
remember from the age of six I was absolutely enthralled
by the movies and my one simple ambition was to make
films myself. I actually borrowed my father's camera
and made a film "Chuttiyon main mauj maza" with cousins
coming from different parts of India to spend summer
holidays with us.
Yet you went and chose physics and math and then economics
for your master's degree, totally alien to filmmaking.
If I had said to any one that I wanted to make films
they would have just laughed, as Hyderabad had nothing
to do with films as a city. There was no possibility
of learning how to make films and there was no film
and television institute. So I decided I would earn
a living and on the side make films. A cousin of mine,
Gurudutt, had already set an example before me. Before
he became a filmmaker he had worked as a dancer with
Ravi Shankar's older brother Uday Shankar. In fact he
played Lakshman to Uday Shankar's Ram in the Ramayana
ballet that Uday Shankar performed at the Brabourne
stadium in Bombay. Gurudutt then became a dance director,
and then an assistant director to Amiya Chakrabarty,
before becoming a full-fledged director. So there was
his example before me and I was fully prepared for the
struggle.
After graduating I came to Bombay and joined an advertising
agency. I started as a copywriter and remained a copywriter
for only about six months and then started making commercials
and the company saw my passion and let me make ads for
them. My first one was a Hindustan Lever ad featuring
dehydrated peas! Then I never looked back. I learnt
a lot from these ad films. It was a hands-on experience
from scripts to lighting to camera.
From commercials to film making and that too a film
like "Ankur" with an unortho-dox theme. It did incredibly
well, but did you expect it to? How did you choose Shabana
Azmi, since she was fresh out of the Film and Television
Institute with no prior experience?
I knew Ankur was one film I had to do before I died.
I wasn't sure if it would do well. Fortunately for me
it was a popular as well as a critical success.. Initially
I had wanted Waheeda Rehman who was a family friend,
since she was very close to Gurudutt. She was a little
worried because she wasn't sure she should make a film
like that which was unconventional since she was at
the peak of her career. She shied away. Then I started
looking for other people and then decided on Sharada,
the award-wining South Indian actress, but her husband
put his foot down, then I looked for Aparna Sen but
she decided against it because she felt that she would
not be able to speak the dialect. Then another assistant
mentioned Shabana who had just passed out of the national
film institute. The moment I saw her I knew she will
do justice to the film, and she did indeed go on to
win the national award for the film.
You also discovered Smita Patil while she read the news
on television. Though she made Charandas Chor a children's'
film with you she gave a stellar performance in Manthan.
How did you gauge her caliber just watching her read
the news? The important thing was as a newsreader she
was so relaxed and comfortable with what she was doing
in front of the camera. In real life she'd get lost
in the crowd, but the moment she came before the camera
there was a total transformation. She was the kind of
an actor who let the director mould her totally. Smita
had an instinct that worked for her. She was a very
intuitive actress and she never consciously worked on
her part. Shabana is a very thinking person so she works
out her roles.
Smita looked right in any kind of roles from glamorous
to off beat, but as a dramatic actress of course Shabana
has no peers. Manthan was a unique film in more than
one respect. In the 1970s, the movement to establish
milk cooperatives had begun in Gujarat, spear-headed
by Dr. Verghese Kurien of the Indian National Dairy
Development Board and involving about half a million
dairy farmers. I had already made a documentary on the
subject and gathered a great deal of research material,
and had discussed with Dr. Kurien the possibility of
making a feature film on it For finance we directly
approached the farmers and half a million of them, contributed
two rupees each. More people saw the film than any single
film made in India and helped develop new cooperatives
all over India. Twenty five years later, today, in new
areas, it is still inspiring people. The movie was screened
in many parts of the world, and the UNDP also showed
it in different places in Nigeria, Kenya and Tanzania.
Let's talk about your latest offering Zubeida. Was it
true that top actors turned down the role of the prince
played ultimately by Manoj Bajpai? How did you decide
on Karisma Kapoor for the role?
Anil Kapoor, Amir Khan and Shahrukh Khan turned down
that role. No male star as successful as them will take
the role that is either equal or dominated by the woman
star. It may affect their career. They are stars and
stars cater to a certain image and they do not want
to break that image and I think that was the problem
with those three.
That was the very reason I was hesitant to take Karisma.
She was willing to do the role, but because it was totally
different from anything she had done before, I wasn't
sure that she would be really interested and I didn't
have any clue of her caliber. But when I met her I was
absolutely certain that she was the right choice and
she more than fulfilled that faith. The greatest satisfaction
in Zubeida was how the overall character of the film
has emerged. AR Rahman did an incredible job with the
music. I wanted his incredible ability to create a contemporary
sound and within that contemporary sound give me that
period. He delivered what I expected. I loved his music
for Lagaan as well. It is very different from anything
he has done before.
Though technically brilliant your movies always have
a social or political theme. The women characters are
treated very sensitively, and women's issues repeatedly
showcased.
That was mainly because growing up in Hyderabad, which
was under the Nizam, I saw a lot of agitation against
his rule, atrocities against the poor and women and
the political and social changes left a deep impact,
so when I joined college I was politically and socially
very conscious. Our vice chancellor was a man who would
invite great celebrities from all walks of life to visit
and share their thoughts. It was very enriching and
made me strongly motivated to make changes in the society.
You have made several documentaries and television series.
One of the most extraordinary ones is the one you made
on Satyajit Ray. What are the special memories of Ray
that you cherish?
He was a man of monumental talents. He was a book illustrator
well before he was a filmmaker. The cover design of
Nehru's book " The Discovery of India" was by Ray, but
I didn't know that till he made "Pather Panchali" that
he was the same Ray. That was the film, which actually
crystallized my own ambition to be a filmmaker. He touched
my life in a very deep way and then I went to see him.
I was so in awe of him, when I met him for the first
time, I was awed at meeting a great master, but he put
me at ease. When I was making the film on him he was
very cooperative. I often took advice from him and would
show him all the documentaries I made, including my
first feature film Ankur.
I remember his viewpoints and his own take on the cinema
and I agreed with a lot of what he said. I learnt how
to set the geography of the film from him and also to
look at films in a particular way.
Another highly acclaimed film was Making of the Mahatma.
I believe you put two and a half years of research and
went through 12 scripts before it was made. What did
you discover about Gandhi that was unusual during that
research?
That he was not a genius, but had tremendous will power
and believed strongly that to change the world you must
first change yourself.
You continue to choose diverse subjects whether it is
television or documentaries or feature films. How do
you choose your actors and how much freedom are they
given to improvise?
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