September 07, 2024
Shyam Benegal was born on 14-12-1934 in Thirumalagiri, Suryapet in the state of Telangana, India. He is an Indian Film Director, Screenwriter, Documentary Filmmaker, Writer & Author who best known for his work in Bollywood industry.
Other Professions: | Screenwriter Documentary Filmmaker Writer Author |
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Appearance: | Bollywood |
Shyam Benegal is an Indian screenwriter and director. He completed his Masters of Arts in Economics from Osmania University. He started his career as a copywriter in an advertising agency in Mumbai. He became a creative head there in Lintas Advertising. He made his 1st documentary ‘Gher Betha Ganga‘ in Gujarati in 1962.
He then worked with ASP- Advertising, Sales, and Promotion which was an advertising agency. During his career in advertising, he had directed more than 900 sponsored advertising films and documentaries. He even taught at and served as a chairman of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) at Pune.He holds the chairmanship twice. His documentary 'A Child of the Streets' received praise from the audience. He had worked on 70 short films and documentary.
He got the opportunity to work at Children's Television Workshop and then at WGBH-TV after receiving the prestigious Homi J. Bhabha Fellowship. He came up with feature films like Ankur, Nishant, Manthan, and Bhumika which created a separately new genre in Indian Cinema. His work was called as ‘New or Alternate cinema’, but he didn’t like it. His film ‘Ankur‘ which showed the story of sexual and economic exploitation in Benegal and Telangana gave him the fame. He made use of the new actors, especially from NSD and FTII such as Om Puri, Naseeruddin Shah, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Smita Patil and Amrish Puri.
His next films were based on social issues such as women safety, rural empowerment etc. He even made a biopic of Hansa Wadkar who was the famous Marathi film and stage actress who led an unconventional and flamboyant life. He worked for 21 film modules sponsored by UNICEF for Satellite Instructional Television Experiment. He made a classic folk tale for Children's Film Society of India casting many children on SITE titled ‘Charandas Chor’ in 1975.
He directed television serials like ‘Yatra‘ in 1986, ‘Bharat Ek Khoj’ in 1988.This helped him to survive in the bad phase of Indian Cinema. He was appointed as a director of National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) for 1980 -1986. Famous actor Shashi Kapoor backed him and he made 2 movies for him 'Junoon' and 'Kalyug'. His next projects were satirical comedy film ‘Mandi’ in 1983 and 'Trikal' in 1985.He worked on the biography based movie’ Satyajit Ray’ in 1985.
He made ‘Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose: The Forgotten Hero’ in 2005. He is the owner of a production house ‘Sahyadri Films’. He has written 3 books including 'The Churning with Vijay Tendulkar', 'Satyajit Ray', and 'The Marketplace'. His next work was ‘Welcome to Sajjanpur’ in 2008. His political film ‘Well Done Abba’ was released in 2010.
AWARD NAME | AWARD CATEGORY | RECEIPT YEAR | RECEIPT FIELD |
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Padma Shri | Civilian Award | 1976 | Arts |
Padma Bhushan | Civilian Award | 1991 | Arts |
Dadasaheb Phalke Award | Indian Cinema Award | 2005 | Hindi Film Industry |
He was born as Shyam Sunder Benegal to Sridhar B. Benegal (photographer) and has a brother named Som Benegal. Shyam's paternal grandmother was the sister of Guru Dutt's maternal grandmother. He married Nira Benegal and has one daughter named Pia (a costume designer). Filmmaker Dev Benegal is his nephew.
Skin Colour | Fair |
Eye Colour | Brown |
Hair Colour | White |
Home Town | Secundrabad |
Nationality | Indian |
Religion | Hindu |
Address | Mumbai, Maharashtra, India |
School | N/A |
College | Osmania University, Hyderabad |
Qualification | M.A. in Economics |
Hobbies | Traveling and Reading |
Marital Status | Married |
Debut | Film Director - Ankur (1974), TV Director - Yatra (1986) |
Best Movies | Junoon (1979) and Zubeidaa (2000) |
Favorite Movie | Sant Tukaram (1936) |
89 years, 8months, 24 days old age Shyam Benegal will turn 90 on 14 December, 2024. Only 3 months, 6 days, his next birthday.
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Shyam Benegal has celebrated the total number of 90 birthdays till date. See the analysis by days count and bar graph. |
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