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: Shyam Benegal, Movies

Shyam Benegal is one of India’s most prolific filmmakers. This August, his 24th feature film, Mahadev Ka Sajjanpur will be released. It will join a diverse and vast body of work spanning ad films, documentaries and feature films. Rooted in reality, his films explore complex themes and send out strong messages. Benegal has also introduced to us some of the most talented actors of our times. But getting started was tough, he told Anuradha SenGupta in an interview.

Shyam Benegal: I had been to every single film producer I knew and I would always hear things that were very disheartening like saying, 'how do you expect this story to work in the market place?'.

Anuradha SenGupta: Between the time, you articulated the desire and the time you made your first film, you were 39, what kept you going?

Shyam Benegal: I articulated my desire to be a filmmaker much before I was 20. I knew that I would make films since I was 6-yearold. But the fact is that I actually made a film when I was 12 and it then stuck in my mind that I would make films on vocation. Whether it will be a profession or not, I did not know. I wanted to make my first film and I said let me be the youngest. For me, the youngest filmmaker was my cousin Guru Dutt. He made his first film when he was 25. This is one of the adolescent notions that I had.

Anuradha SenGupta: And then you confront reality?

Shyam Benegal: Reality is of many kind. It is very complex reality. But I was writing my script, rewriting it again and again which became my first film called Ankur.

Acclaimed as one of his finest films, Ankur is a powerful portrayal of changing rural landscape. It almost instinctively puts the peasant woman played by Shabana Azmi who made her debut, at the centre. And while she is affected by circumstances, she makes her choices that change her life. The landlord’s son, who wants to break from tradition, yet succumbs to its privileges. The story is still fresh in most people’s memories. It went on to win several national and international awards.