Shyam Benegal Biography

Shyam Benegal is a prolific Indian director and screenwriter. With his first four feature films Ankur (1973), Nishant (1975) Manthan (1976) and Bhumika (1977) he created a new genre, which has now come to be called the "middle cinema" in India.

Early Life And Education

Shyam Benegal was born on 14 December, 1934 in Trimulgherry, Secunderabad then a British Cantonment, and now a twin city of the state capital, Hyderabad. It was here, at the age of twelve that he made his first film, on a camera given to him by his photographer father Sridhar B. Benegal. He received an M.A. degree in Economics, from Nizam College, Osmania University, Hyderabad. It was here that he formed the Hyderabad Film Society.

Family

Benegal is related to the famous film director and actor Guru Dutt; his paternal grandmother and Guru Dutt's maternal grandmother were sisters, both nominally Konkani-speaking Chitrapur Saraswats from the Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka.

Career

He started his career working in 1959, as an advertising copywriter, at a Bombay-based advertising agency, Lintas Advertising, where he steadily rose to become a creative head. Meanwhile, he made his first documentary in Gujarati, Gher Betha Ganga (Ganges at Doorsteps) in 1962. His first feature film though, had to wait for another decade, while he worked on the script.

He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1976 and the Padma Bhushan in 1991. On 8 August 2007, he was awarded the highest award in Indian cinema for lifetime achievement, the Dadasaheb Phalke Award for the year 2005. He has won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi seven times.

Personal Life

Shyam Benegal is married to Neera Benegal. He is also involved with the Mumbai-based film school Whistling Woods International as chairman of the academic council.

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