Big B mourns Shyam Benegal’s death: Indian film industry loses another stalwart

Mumbai, Dec 24: Bollywood mega-star Amitabh Bachchan has mourned the loss of veteran filmmaker Shyam Benegal, who passed away in Mumbai on December 23 aged 90. The cine icon took to his blog, where he expressed his sadness over the death of the filmmaker, who pioneered the parallel film movement in India.

Amitabh wrote: “The Indian Film Industry loses another stalwart ..Sad ..Shyam Benegal .. passes away .. Our prayers and condolences ..My affection The filmmaker was suffering from a kidney ailment for a while, and was admitted to Wockhardt hospital in Mumbai. His funeral will be held in Mumbai at 10:00 am on Tuesday.

Shyam Benegal is widely considered as one of the greatest filmmakers after the 1970s, and received several honours like 18 National Film Awards, a Nandi Award, the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, India's highest award in the field of cinema, a Padma Shri, and Padma Bhushan. The filmmaker recently celebrated his 90th birthday in Mumbai. He was born in Hyderabad to Sridhar B. Benegal who was prominent in the field of photography. He was the second cousin of the legendary Indian auteur Guru Dutt.

Shyam Benegal started his career as a copywriter, and made his first Documentary film in Gujarati, ‘Gher Betha Ganga’ in 1962. His first four feature films ‘Ankur’ (1973), ‘Nishant’ (1975), ‘Manthan’ (1976) and ‘Bhumika’ (1977) made him a pioneer of the new wave film movement of that period. His film ‘Mandi’ (1983), is known for its satire on politics and prostitution. The film starred Shabana Azmi and Smita Patil. Later, working from his own story, based on the last days of Portuguese in Goa, in the early 1960s, Shyam explored human relationships in ‘Trikal’.

Benegal's last project was the 2023 biographical film 'Mujib: The Making of a Nation', an epic biographical film based on the life of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father and first president of Bangladesh who is popularly known as Bangabandhu.