Shyam Benegal cuts 81st birthday cake at Osianama’s Benegal Retro Fest

Benegal, Nihalani and Naseeruddin Shah arrived on the dot and the red carpet and the conversation began at the scheduled time. This was followed by the lighting of the ceremonial lamp. It was then time for the much-awaited conversation between Naseeruddin Shah, Shyam Benegal and Neville Tuli, the force behind Osianama followed by the Screening of Junoon (1978) – a newly restored print by the Kapoor Family for the new generation of film-goers.

Osianama’s Chairman Neville Tuli avers, “No Indian film director has introduced so many brilliant actors to the Hindi silver screen, from Shabana Azmi, Anant Nag, Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri, Amrish Puri, Rajit Kapur and so many more… that too mostly from the world of theatre which was not the norm in the early 1970s. Shyam Benegal was also one of the first people who fought for the independence of the filmmaker, while at the same time building bridges with other organizations or collaborations to facilitate the funding of his cinema so as not to lose creative control. The funding of ‘Manthan’ was a unique ‘crowd-funding’ model ahead of its times. He persuaded 500,000 people from the milk cooperative communities of Gujarat to invest two rupees and that’s how ‘Manthan’ was funded. And this was achieved in 1975, an infrastructure-building landmark for cinema…. A similar process was followed with ‘Susman’, another film we will be showing which was funded by the Handloom Weavers’ Cooperative Society. The whole idea of how do you keep your financial independence while keeping your intellectual independence, so that no one interferes was pivotal to his cinema…” further explains Tuli.

The Festival showcases a total of 14 of Shyam Benegal’s film including Ankur, Nishant , Manthan, Trikal, Junoon, Welcome to Sajjanpur, Sooraj Ka Saatvan Ghoda, Bose: The Forgotten Hero, Mammo, among others, and one of his best well-known documentaries Bharat Ek Khoj till Dec 20.

Shyam Benegal expressed his happiness at the fest, while Naseeruddin Shah added that, “Festivals like Osianama’s Shyam Benegal Retrospective should happen more often and it takes someone with the guts of Neville Tuli to pull it off.”

Shyam Benegal’s Director’s Master Class on Dec 19 is divided into SIX main sections over 3 days, focusing on all facets of film-making, each section in conversation with his leading actors, screenplay writers, directors of cinematography, art direction and costume design, such as Naseeruddin Shah, Shama Zaidi, Govind Nihalani & others. (GNI)