Shyam Benegal: The Man Who Discovered a Famous Trio | India News

Shyam Benegal, who began his career as a director with no previous experience in cinema, discovered talent in a number of artists and technicians in the 1970s, including many leaders of the “art film” movement. The list includes Shabana Azmi, Anant Nag, Naseeruddin Shah, Smita Patil, Pankaj Kapoor, Govind Nihalani, Shama Zaidi and Kulbhushan Kharbanda.
Nishant was the film that brought Naseeruddin Shah to the screen. As a student at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), he was recommended by Girish Karnad, the institute’s director, who had seen him on stage in Edward Albee’s Zoo Story. Shah was leading an agitation at FTII at that time. According to Karnad, the reason for the strike was “stupid” but Shah was “passionate”.
He was sent from Pune to meet the filmmaker and landed at Benegal’s apartment on Pedder Road early in the morning wearing cowboy boots and a corduroy denim jacket. He looked nothing like the dhoti-kurta-clad villager he was supposed to portray. Luckily, Benegal still believed he was “more or less” right for the role.
Shah recalls in his memoirs that the introduction made him the envy of his group, many of whom spread the lie that he got the role because he had “sold out” the thing. The demand that acting students should act in all diploma films from other courses was never met.
Smita Patil was also discovered by the director who saw her for the first time on television. She read the news in Marathi. “Her presence was captivating and attractive,” he recalled. Despite a lack of professional training and no ambition to become an actress, Benegal cast her in a number of prominent roles. “Her ability to take on different roles was a gift…she could play both glamorous roles and plain roles,” he once said.
Not all of Benegal’s discoveries were automatic decisions. Shabana Azmi, an FTII graduate from the previous batch, was not the first choice for Ankur. He had approached Waheeda Rehman, Sharda, Aparna Sen and Anju Mahendru, all of whom declined. Then he heard from one of Shabana’s assistants. “When I saw her, I knew straight away that she was right for the role, even though she was wearing model-like clothes,” he recalled in an interview. In the end, he offered her two roles, one in Ankur and the other in Nishant.