Famous filmmaker Shyam Benegal has passed away. He was 90 years old. Shyam Benegal has made many award winning films in his film career. At the age of 90, in an interview given to a YouTube channel, Shyam Benegal was asked whether he still felt the same jealousy or envy that he felt for his colleagues at the age of 30 or 40? Shyam Benegal had given a very interesting answer to this question.
Shyam Benegal said, “No, right now I do not feel this kind of jealousy or envy at all. I don't even think about it right now. But when I was young, I used to feel this jealousy. I remember during that time there was only one filmmaker in India whom anyone could be jealous of and that was Satyajit Ray. But there were some people like Satyajit Ray and Ritwik Ghatak, who I also liked very much. I liked his work. However, there were some people in my life of whom I was jealous. Especially my cousin Guru Dutt, I did not like him because I was jealous of him. I was jealous of his success. As a filmmaker, I was very critical of his work. But actually it was my jealousy.”
He created the new wave cinema. #shyambenegal will always be remembered as the man that changed the direction of Indian Cinema with films like Ankur, Manthan and countless others. He created stars out great actors like Shabama Azmi and Smita Patil. Farewell my friend and guide pic.twitter.com/5r3rkX48Vx
— Shekhar Kapur (@shekharkapur) December 23, 2024
Shyam Benegal He further said, “Even today Guru Dutt is a successful filmmaker. He used to show beauty and shortcomings related to beauty very beautifully in his films. He loved experimenting in his art. On one hand, he had made many beautiful and hit films like 'Saheb Biwi Aur Ghulam'. On the other hand, his 'Kaagaz Ke Phool' flopped miserably. I found some scenes of that film very interesting. At that time VK Murthy was his cameraman, he then became my cameraman. We worked together for many years.”
India's legendary film director and actor Guru Dutt's maternal grandmother and Shyam Benegal's grandmother were sisters and through that relationship, Shyam Benegal and Guru Dutt were each other's cousins. Both were born in Chitrapur Saraswat Brahmin family. But Shyam Benegal was born in Hyderabad, while Guru Dutt was born in Karnataka. The contribution of these two in Hindi cinema will always be remembered.
