Sanjay Leela Bhansali on Shyam Benegal, “He built confidence in me to be a filmmaker” : Bollywood News
Not many know this. But contemporary Hindi cinema’s celebrated filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali worked with Shyam Benegal for one and a half years. “Not as an assistant, mind you,” Sanjay clarified. “But I observed him at work when he was editing the Doordarshan serial The Discovery Of India. Shyam Babu shot this serial at Film City and simultaneously edited it at Film City itself. For one-and-a-half years, he worked uninterrupted on this historic project! My brother-in-law Deepak Sehgal was Shyam Babu’s official editor. It was Deepak who got me an introduction with the great man…how great, I came to know only after watching him at work.”
Sanjay Leela Bhansali on Shyam Benegal, “He built confidence in me to be a filmmaker”
Sanjay recalls his first meeting with Benegal. “There was no nose-in-the-air attitude of I-am-THE-Shyam-Benegal. None of the patronizing attitude newcomers face when apprenticing with stalwarts. He instantly warmed up to me and threw the doors of his knowledge wide open for me,” he said.
Sanjay was awestruck by the oceanic Bay of Benegal. “He could speak on anything with a clarity and conciseness that comes only to the most sorted mind,” he said. “I would today very confidently say that he built a confidence in me to be a filmmaker. In those one-and-a-half-years that I spent watching Shyam Babu editing his work, I learned not only editing, but also how to make serious socially relevant cinema that the masses can access.”
The Heeramandi The creator is in complete awe of Shyam Benegal. He added, “I could watch his films over and over again and come away with something new every time. anchor is to the 1970s what Satyajit Ray’s Pather Panchali was to the earlier decade. Shyam Babu was the true inheritor of the Ray legacy. And look at the talent he gave us: greats like Shabana Azmi, Smita Patil and Govind Nihalani. We have a lot to be thankful for to Shyam Babu.”
Many years after watching and learning from the Master Storyteller, Sanjay got a surprise call from him. “Shyam Babu called me after my black was released to tell me how much he liked my film. At that moment, I felt supremely validated,” said the filmmaker.
Also Read:Doordarshan to screen 4K restored version of Manthan as tribute to Shyam Benegal; deets inside!
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