Veteran filmmaker Shyam Benegal to be cremated with state honours

Shyam Benegal was one of the greatest filmmakers in Indian cinema history. He passed away at the age of 90 due to kidney-related issues. The doyen will be cremated at 2 pm with state honours.

It took the genius of Shyam Benegal to see beyond his looks, says actor Manoj Bajpayee who never imagined himself playing a royal and did so in the 2001 film “Zubeidaa” after the filmmaker convinced him.

Benegal, who pioneered the art house cinema movement in the country with films such as “Mandi” and “Ankur”, died in Mumbai on Monday evening just nine day after his 90th birthday.

The actor met Benegal a couple of years after his breakout role as the mafia don Bhiku Mhatre in the 1998 crime classic “Satya” by Ram Gopal Varma.

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Benegal, the pioneer of parallel cinema, played a pivotal role in Shabana Azmi’s career as the actor says he was a guru who influenced not only her approach towards acting but also her understanding of life.

Benegal, known for his socially relevant and thought-provoking films such as “Ankur” (1974), “Mandi” (1983), “Mammo” (1994) and “Zubeidaa” (2001) , died in Mumbai on Monday evening, just nine days after his 90th birthday.

It was Benegal who gave Azmi her first acting role in his directorial debut “Ankur”, which explored themes of caste, class, and sexual politics, with a focus on the struggles of rural women.

With added inputs from agencies