'Smita Didn't Want Anything To Do With Films'

'Naseer does not have the sense of humour that Om Puri has.'
'Also Om has a great deal of compassion as a human being. Naseer was too focused on his own self.'
A fascinating excerpt from Sangeeta Datta's book Shyam Benegal.

I was casting for Nishant, and I couldn't find an actor to play the part of Rukmini.

One day I was watching the news on television, and I took notice of this very attractive newsreader [Smita Patil]. The camera was really loving her, she had great presence.

I asked my sound recordist Hiten Ghosh, who had just started with me fresh from the Film Institute. He said he knew her, and he spoke to the family.

Smita's mother had seen Ankur and was very interested in her daughter working with me.

Smita, of course, was most reluctant. She did not want to have anything to do with films.

She came to see me twice, once with her father who was then minister of the Maharashtra cabinet. I finally managed to persuade her to act in Nishant.

She was not a trained actress, to see what her acting capabilities were I put her in Charandas Chor, a film made for the Children's Film Society. She was very good. She was absolutely first class.

There was no question after that she would be ideal for Manthan. Shabana at that time was riding very high, and she said no to Manthan, so I took Smita, and there was no question in my mind that she was to be in Bhumika.

Until the time we did Bhumika, Smita still was not sure that she wanted to be an actress.

For Nishant, the problem more than her was her principal of St Xavier's College. He refused to let her go for the shoot because it was close to exams.

For the missionary padres, film was just a vulgar obscenity, so I had to meet him and convince him.

With the National Award for Bhumika she found her métier, she knew she wanted to be an actress. She was as successful as Shabana.

People were starting to talk about her in the same way. They were the new breed of actresses working in the realist genre.

Naseeruddin Shah was noticed quite a lot for Manthan. He started getting all kind of roles in mainstream cinema after Manthan. He, of course, considers Manthan to be the least successful of his performances. Whatever he does he gives it his best. His commitment to acting is total.

There is no other thing on his mind except to give the best possible performance. But he does not have the sense of humour that Om Puri has. Also Om has a great deal of compassion as a human being. Naseer was too focused on his own self.

Om is a more affable human being.

More or less by now I had my own repertory cast members, Shabana Azmi, Smita Patil, Naseer, Girish Karnad, Kulbhushan Kharbanda.

Girish was never serious about acting, he concentrated on writing. He is one of the best playwrights we have produced in recent years. His acting came second to that. I think he made a pretty handsome livelihood as an actor.

Mohan Agashe goes back to his theatre days in Theatre Academy. But I haven't cast him after Bhumika, which is almost 25 years now. I was taking graduates from the National School of Drama.

Govind (Nihalani) was my cameraman for eleven films and seven documentaries.

After that Ashok Mehta came in and other cameramen.

Rajan Kothari has worked for the last three films.

My editor Bhanu Divkar fell ill and eventually died, after which there have been various editors until recently -- Asheem Sinha has worked as editor for the last four films.

I had V K Murthy [Guru Dutt's cinematographer] for one feature film plus all of Bharat Ek Khoj; Vanraj Bhatia as music director.

Mandi -- I used classical Urdu poets and Majrooh Sultanpuri, also in Bhumika.

Kaifi Azmi wrote the dialogues for Manthan and won the National Award for that.

Javed Akhtar has written the songs for Sardari Begum and Zubeidaa.

Gulzar wrote the song for Mammo.

Govind Nihalani: Benegal's cinematographer and film-maker

Film-makers like Shyam got with them a world view. He took a position vis-à-vis the reality that he depicted -- as a director he had a taken position. My political education began in his company.

A fine combination of passion and the cerebral, he is one director who struck a balance between personal experience and ideology in his films.

Shyam's contribution has been immense, he made films without government support, did not succumb to mainstream formula, gave viewers an intelligent choice of films, also proved that art films can be economically viable.

Shyam gave his kind of films a place of tremendous respect -- these films became part of people's conversations. Raising questions, suggesting choices, initiating debate was very important. As a person he is a very fine human being, with no rancour, helpful even to his worst critics. The guy is a good man!

Excerpted from Shyam Benegal by Sangeeta Datta, with the kind permission of the publishers ROLI.