Filmmaker Shyam Benegal cremated with full state honours

Mumbai: Veteran filmmaker Shyam Benegal, the pioneer of the parallel cinema movement in Indian cinema in the 1970s and 1980s, was cremated on Tuesday with full state honours and a three-gun salute here.

Benegal, known for films such as “Ankur”, “Mandi”, “Nishant”, and “Junoon”, died on Monday at a hospital here due to chronic kidney disease.

The last rites of the filmmaker, who celebrated his 90th birthday on December 14, were held around 3 pm at Dadar’s Shivaji Park crematorium.

Benegal’s cinema contemporaries, colleagues and younger generations of actors and artists accompanied wife Nira and daughter Pia in paying their last respects to the icon, whose movies captured the many realities of India.

Naseeruddin Shah, Rajit Kapoor, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, and Ila Arun, who starred in many of Benegal’s films, were present to bid adieu to the director. Also present were actor Ratna Pathak Shah, her son Vivaan Shah, writer-poet Gulzar, director Hansal Mehta, lyricisit-writer Javed Akhtar, actors Divya Dutta, Boman Irani, Kunal Kapoor and Anang Desai.

Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, whose Film Heritage Foundation recently restored Benegal’s 1976 “Manthan” for a screening at the Cannes Film Festival, was also present.

Gulzar said what Benegal brought to cinema was a revolution that will never come again.

“He hasn’t departed, we have departed from him and seen him off. He brought a revolution, he has gone with that revolution of change in cinema. Nobody else will be able to bring that wave, revolution once again. We will remember him for a long time and we will talk about him for a long to come,” Gulzar told PTI.

Actor Shreyas Talpade, who played the lead role in Benegal’s satire “Welcome to Sajjanpur”, said the film was one of his most memorable shooting experiences because of Benegal.

“I was a changed person after I returned from the shoot of the film. I think we will miss his talks the most. He mesmerised us whenever he used to talk. It’s a huge loss,” Talpade said.