I see the flaws in my films too easily: Benegal

CINEMASCOPE: Benegal says a filmmaker must invite viewers, not scare them away.

          

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Keywords: Films , Cinema

Anuradha SenGupta: In fact, you said you would like to have made a film by 25. One of the reasons was because your cousin Guru Dutt did that, but you didn’t make his kind of films at all.

Shyam Benegal: Not at all. The important thing is that you always have an impossible dream which you want to make possible. Otherwise, what’s the point of that dream?

Anuradha SenGupta: Satyajit Ray is a film-maker you have held in great esteem, whom you documented for us. Tell us why he inspired you so much.

Shyam Benegal: This uncle of mine who lived in Calcutta said, “Have you seen – because I know your interest in cinema – have you seen this young man’s film called Pather Panchali?” So, I said no, and he said, “Why don’t you go and take a look at it?” I went and I was absolutely floored by this incredible film, and during that one trip – I was in Calcutta – I saw it a dozen times. It was like an explosion that had taken place in my mind. I said, “This man is doing something that is so different from everything that I have ever seen.” So when I saw Satyajit Ray’s films, I said, “My God! Here’s this man” –

Anuradha SenGupta: - this is what I want to make?

Shyam Benegal: No, this is not what I want to make. I can make my own way – that’s what I learnt from him, because he made his own way.

Benegal’s next release will be a comic satire about a letter-writer who’s unique vocation gives him power over the people whose letters he reads and writes. The film shifts Benegal’s gaze back to a setting which has always interested him – the village.

Shyam Benegal: It was fairly accidental that my first three films happened to be rural, so everybody thought I was only making films about rural India, which is not true. I did all kinds of films – I did urban films, I did contemporary urban films, I did historical films. I mean, all sorts of things.

Anuradha SenGupta: And yet, with your next film, you’re going right back there.