Shyam Benegal: A Life in Pictures

22 December 11

The Indian director of the controversial Nishant speaks about his career in film and television in this BAFTA Guru video.

_{The full length Shyam Benegal interview
video is available to watch now on BAFTA Guru.}

Benegal has made 24 fiction features for the cinema, several documentaries and TV series, most notably a 53 hour TV series on the History of India. With his first four feature films Ankur (1973), Nishant (1975) Manthan (1976) and Bhumika (1977) he created the 'middle cinema' genre in India. The success that New India Cinema enjoyed in the 1970s and early 1980s has often been attributed to these four films.

The film industry talks about entertainment, I talk about engagement. But the engagement and entertainment concepts must meet at some stage.

In this video, available to watch in full on BAFTA Guru, Benegal speaks to Francine Stock about his controversy-provoking film Nishant. The film was banned after the its political messages were perceived to reflect negatively on the country and a controversial rape scene was deemed 'too ugly'.

In this exclusive Life in Pictures event, Benegal reveals that the ruling was finally overturned only through direct appeals to Mrs Gandhi.