Shyam Benegal Last Rites: Filmmaker Shyam Benegal, famous for his films in Indian cinema in the 1970s and 1980s, was cremated with full state honors in Mumbai on Tuesday and he was given a three-gun salute.
Benegal, famous for films like ‘Ankur’, ‘Mandi’, ‘Nishant’ and ‘Junoon’, died in a hospital here on Monday. He was suffering from serious kidney disease. The filmmaker celebrated his 90th birthday on 14 December. His last rites took place at Shivaji Park crematorium in Dadar at around 3 o’clock in the day.
Benegal’s wife Neera and daughter Pia, along with his contemporaries, colleagues and young generation actors and artists had come to pay their last tribute to this great personality, whose films had depicted many realities of India.
Celebs bid last farewell
Actors Naseeruddin Shah, Rajit Kapoor, Kulbhushan Kharbanda and Ila Arun, who have acted in many of Benegal’s films, were present to bid farewell to the director. Actress Ratna Pathak Shah, her son Vivaan Shah, writer-poet Gulzar, director Hansal Mehta, lyricist-writer Javed Akhtar, actress Divya Dutta, actors Boman Irani, Kunal Kapoor and Anang Desai were also present.
Also present on the occasion was Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, whose ‘Film Heritage Foundation’ recently re-screened Benegal’s 1976 film ‘Manthan’ at the Cannes Film Festival.
Gulzar said this
Gulzar said that the revolution that Benegal brought to cinema will never happen again. Gulzar told ‘PTI-Bhasha’, “He has not gone, we have bid farewell to him and we have said goodbye to him.” He brought a revolution and left with that revolution a change in cinema. No one else will be able to bring that wave, that revolution again. We will remember him for a long time and talk about him for a long time.
Actor Shreyas Talpade, who played the lead role in Benegal’s satirical film ‘Welcome to Sajjanpur’, said that the film was one of the most memorable shooting experiences for him because of Benegal.
Talpade said, “After returning from the shooting of the film, I felt quite changed. I think we will miss his words the most. Whenever he spoke, he mesmerized us. This is a huge loss.