The Indian film industry is saddened by the death of the legendary filmmaker Shyam Benegal. He passed away last evening at the age of 90. Veteran actress Neena Gupta has spoken about the filmmaker, who directed him in quite a few movies, in an interview with us.
You were very closely associated with Shyam Babu
I have been wanting to go and see him for some time now. See, I have worked with a lot of good directors over the past years. But I worked with him when I was very new. And one has learnt a lot from him. I mean, we used to joke and say that he can talk about the history of a safety pin to anything in the world, you know. Yeah, he was very erudite, very knowledgeable. I went to Rio de Janeiro with him for Trikaal.
He was a living encyclopaedia
I have learnt so much from him. Not just about filmmaking but about life, about knowledge, about everything. It is not just Trikal. Mandi hai. Suraj Ka Satvan Ghoda is one of my favourite films. He had taken somebody else and that didn’t work out. The last minute, he called me. Of course, he called and I jumped to do it. But it was a very difficult film. I still don’t understand that film sometimes. But his technique in that film is most amazing. And he didn’t talk about acting. He will tell you about the gist of the film. And then he will let you interpret the character. People don’t know about the secret project I’ve done with Shyam Benegal.
Tell me about it
I have done a one-hour film on soya bean with him. Because they were promoting soya bean, soya bean oil and soya bean because it’s full of protein and all that. And we were again in Hyderabad in a village. We were shooting. There was a very nice song in that film also. So, people don’t know about it. But I have done a lot of little, little work with him. And then I was supposed to do a movie adaptation Georges Bizet’s classic Spanish opera Carmen with him at one time. He fell sick and that film didn’t happen. And I felt very bad. So, there are very, very nice memories, actually, I have with him.
One of the founding fathers of your career and of Indian cinema
And the most important is he always made women-oriented films. Yes. Well, not all, but a lot of it. What I have done with him has been like that. Trikal was very much woman oriented. Mandi was very much woman oriented. And then he did this amazing series on history. Discovery of India, which is an archival thing today. It is a monument. I was not in that and I went to him. I was shooting and he didn’t take me. I got very angry. So, I went to his set. I said, make me stand in the crowd. I have to do it. He was very embarrassed. He said, no, why will you stand in the crowd?
Have you forgotten Yatra?
A very, very big thing I did with him was Yatra. Oh, yes, of course. He gave me a double role. We used to have a train to ourselves. And in our bogie, we used to decorate our own bogie. Shyam Babu had his private bogie. All of us actors would wonder if he would invite us in his private bogie just to sit and drink. Yatra was entirely shot on a train while traveling. We had a train to ourselves. In that train, we travelled all over India. Okay I was not in Ankur or Nishant. But no one knows what an experience Yatra was. The experience that I went through enriched me for a whole lifetime. I’ll tell you something about Yatra.
Do tell
We went to Kochi. So, in Kochi, there is a Juice Street. And on the way back, there were shops on the Juice Street. So, I liked one huge thing made of wood. It was a very heavy, big thing. I loved it. It was not very expensive. So, I wanted to buy it. And then I said, but how will we take it? It was a heavy thing which I have in my drawing room till today. So, Shyam said, “We’ll put it in the train.” So, he bought it for me, and we put it in the train. And I have it still.
You also did Susaman
Yes, we went to Susaman in Paris to shoot. And he knew such amazing restaurants, he had amazing knowledge about food. So, he used to take us to very, very expensive, very, very highly rated laces in Paris. And I was a vegetarian. I didn’t eat anything. So, one day, during the shooting, he said, what would you like to have, Neena? So, I said, I am in France. I’ll have French fries. He laughed and laughed and laughed. He said, stupid girl. French fries is not French. So, you know, I have so many memories profound and silly of him. I remember the shooting equipment came in the last minute in Paris. We had to shoot in a rush. We stayed in a hotel in Champs Elysees and the room was so small that there was just this bed and no room in the room. So, I had to wear a saree. And we had to get ready from the hotel itself. There was no room, there was no space to put on my saree. So, I used to climb up on the bed and wear my saree.
Well, these are experiences that have made you the woman that you are
Shyam is a very important part of my life, in my career. And also not just knowledgeable and a great filmmaker. So, much fun. Shooting his films were picnics, you know. Mandi‘s message is the most amazing message I have ever come across. He put the prostitutes in the jungle. Then a city is built there. What he said in Mandi is that sex workers have their own rights, their own feelings. We should treat them as human beings, not as objects.
The post Neena Gupta on her Trikal director Shyam Benegal, “I have learnt so much from him, not just about filmmaking but about life” appeared first on Bollywood Hungama.
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