Shyam Benegal

Shreya Ghoshalon Wednesday attended a special screening of renowned director Shyam Benegal's film 'Mujib - The Making of a Nation'.Talking about the film, Shreya told ANI, "I feel happy to be a part of this project. It's a real-life story and what a great tribute to such a great human being. This film is a gift from our side in a way for the friendship that we have with Bangladesh. I think it's a story that needed to be shared with the whole nation. Truly honoured to be a part of it."Shreya has lent her voice for a song in the film.'Mujib - The Making of a Nation' is an India-Bangladesh co-production on the life of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the father of the nation of Bangladesh, under an audiovisual co-production agreement between the Republic of India and the People's Republic of Bangladesh.Directed by the legendary filmmaker Shyam Benegal, the film was extensively shot in India and Bangladesh, following all health guidelines amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The film was completed in December 2021.Mujibur was born in a prestigious Muslim family. Growing up in a religious and harmonious atmosphere, he was very kind to the poor and was empathetic towards them.Inspired by Mahatma Gandhi, Mujibur struggled against the disparity and deprivation between West Pakistan and East Pakistan and against the Pakistani Military rule. Imprisoned for about 11 years between 1947 to 1971, he strived and achieved an independent and sovereign state 'Bangladesh' that's why Mujib is known as the father of the nation of Bangladesh and 'BANGABANDHU'.Bangladeshi actor Arifin Shuvoo has played the role of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in the film.Meanwhile, Shreya recently received her fifth National Film Award for the song 'Mayava Chayava' from the tamil film 'Iravin Nizhal'.

Salim, who was born in Chennai, was known for his role in the TV series 'Subah 'and for playing Rama, Krishna and Tipu Sultan in Shyam Benegal's TV Series 'Bharat Ek Khoj'. He has also worked in the TV serial 'Wagle Ki Duniya'.In 1989, he portrayed the villain in 'Vettri Vizhaa', a Tamil film directed by Pratap Pothen. He also starred alongside Mohanlal in the classic Malayalam movie, 'Thazhvaram', directed by Bharathan. He once again portrayed a villain role in Mani Ratnam's film, 'Thiruda Thiruda' in 1993, and also acted alongside Madhuri Dixit and Shahrukh Khan in the 1997 film, 'Koyla'.

Alia Bhatt considers her performance in Gangubai Kathiawadi her best to date. A source from Bhansali Production reveals, Alia is very proud of her performance in Gangubai Kathiawadi. She has pushed herself harder on this one than on any other project to date.There are two sequences in the film where she has to pull out all stops, on a par with Shabana Azmis breakdown at the end of Shyam Benegals Ankur. Alia performed them without the help of glycerine. The tears just flowed nonstop even after the shots were over, says a source.Director Bhansali is already comparing Alias performance in Gangubai Kathiawadi to Shabana Azmis powerhouse performance in Mahesh Bhatts Arth. Will Alia get her first National award for best actress in Gangubai Kathiawadi? Those who have seen her do what she had done in the film, seem to think so.

The International Film Festival of India (IFFI) is less than a week away and the organisers have announced the screening of another classic film. Filmmaker Shyam Benegal s 1977 film Bhumika will be screened at the 50th edition of IFFI under the Indian New Wave Cinema category. The film starsSmita Patil, Amol Palekar, Anant Nag, Naseeruddin Shah and Amrish Puri. Recently, it was announced that the iconic Bollywood film Sholay (1975) will also be screened at IFFI under the Retrospective of Amitabh Bachchan category. Several other Indian and foreign films will be screened at the festival held in Goa. Hellaro and Uyare are the two Indian films, which are competing for the best debut feature film of a director award. Hellaro , a Gujarati film is directed by Abhishek Shah and Uyare , which is a Malayalam film, is helmed by Manu Ashokan. The festival will commence on November 20 and go on till November 28. Actors Rajinikanth and Amitabh Bachchan will be present at the opening ceremony of the festival which will be hosted by Karan Johar.It was recently announced that Rajinikanth will be conferred with the Icon of Golden Jubilee Award 2019 by the Government of India at IFFI 2019.

The Bihar Police, on Wednesday, ordered closure of a sedition case filed against 49 celebrities including Anurag Kashyap, Shyam Benegal and Naseeruddin Shah.A few months after the celebrities wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi over lynchings and religious war cry,local advocate Sudhir Kumar Ojha filed a complaint inMuzaffarpur, following which a sedition case was lodged. The list of accused also included historian Ramachandra Guha, actors Soumitra Chatterjee, Aparna Sena, filmmaker Mani Ratnam , actor Revathi and singer Shubha Mudgal. Citing the case as false, the police said that actions will be taken against the petitioner. Ojha, who defended prime accused,Brajesh Thakur in the Muzaffarpur shelter home sexual abuse case has earlier filed over 700 PILs against personalities likeManmohan Singh, Amitabh Bachchan and Hrithik Roshan to name a few. The concerned investigating officer in the present case has been directed to file the final report in a day or two, and further actions against the petitioner will then be determined. The sedition case caused rage in people of all spheres, and also drew flak from public figures including Rahul Gandhi. Actor Naseeruddin Shah and various others from the artists fraternity wrote another letter, asking how could sending a letter to the countrys Prime Minister and demanding his attention be called seditious.

As the Padmavati crisis escalates to the national level, more reasonable voices from within the and outside the entertainment industry can be heard questioning the veryreason of the national uproar. ShyamBenegal whohas faced furious backlash in his time for his cinema onsocio-cultural equality is baffled by the extent of the Padmavati uproar. I am sorry I cant comment on Padmavati.I havent seen it, have you? No one has seen it. Yet there are hordes of people objecting to its content. Does that make any sense? I cant understand how the protest has spread across the nation when hardly anyone has seen the film. How can the protest against a film become so rampant when no one has seen the film, no one knows the content. I am sorry; the protests make no sense, unless we judge them against the political current political climate in the country. ShyamBabuwhose films like Ankur,Nishant,Manthan focused on the evils of the caste system sees a pattern of vote-bank politics in the protests against Padmavati.This is being done to consolidate theRajputvote. Now, you must understand that theRajputcommunity is not one homogenized community across the country. TheRajputsofRajasthan possess a different mind-set and cultural inclination as compared with the Rajputsin other parts of India. And even thoseRajputsin different regions outsideRajasthanare diverse in their outlook. By raking up the Padmavati non-issue, theKarniSena hopes to homogenize theRajputcountry across the country, unite them over an utterly irrelevant crisis. Sadly their ploy seems to be working. If I amfrom aparticular caste and you tell me my cultural heritage is threatened I will naturally react against the threat. ShyamBenegalwhohelmeda committee to recommend reforms in the workings of the censor board has strong words of censure for the censors. I must say theCBFCis behaving very strangely in the matter of Padmavati.If the film did not carry a disclaimer, it could easily be corrected. Why send the film back? Again it seems very suspicious. Heurges the protesters togetreasonable. Wait for Padmavati to release then pass your verdict. What is the point in commenting over a film whose content has not been exposed to the public?

The highly awaited film Padmavati has been postponed indefinitely. It was set to release on December 1 but has been facing issues owing to certain groups objecting to the film on the grounds that it distorts Rajput history. The Sri Rajput Karni Sena, which is spearheading the protest, threatened to burn down any theatre screening Padmavati and even claimed that lead actress Deepika Padukone s nose should be cut off. Members of the ruling government BJP too have been making shocking comments against the film. Yesterday, Suraj Pal Amu, Haryana BJPs chief media coordinator, said in public yesterday that hell offer Rs. 10 crore to anyone wholl behead director Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Deepika Padukone. Another sudden problem emerged when the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) returned the film back to the makers, citing incomplete application. Due to all these reasons, the makers decided to push forward the film. The lack of will on the part of the government to act against these elements has shocked Bollywood. Veteran director Shyam Benegal made his displeasure clear over the governments inaction. He wondered why the government is silent while people ask for heads publicly and are even offering money for the lives of those who disagree with them. He emphasized that the home department should immediately provide protection to those whose lives are in danger. Shyam Benegal also came down heavily on Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje who wrote to Information and Broadcasting Minister Smriti Irani and suggested that Padmavati shouldnt be released without the necessary changes. Benegal said that the chief minister and members of government themselves are adopting an unfair approach to the whole issue. Hence, one cant expect the administration to act against the troublemakers. The other controversy raging at present is the dropping of Ravi Jadhavs Nude and Sanal Kumar Sasidharans S Durga from the final list of films selected by the jury for International Film Festival of India. The festival begins today in Goa. Shyam Benegal reminded that internationally, there are certain rules and conventions followed by film festivals and that the decision of the jury must be respected. Government does not have the right to tamper with those decisions. He also added that the government should rather do away with the jury, if their decisions cannot be implemented. Shyam Benegal further said that the films shown in film festivals are meant to be pre-censored, and are hence, pure art forms. It is the basic premise of a film festival and according to Shyam Benegal, it got violated in the case of S Durga and Nude.Padmavati also stars Ranveer Singh and Shahid Kapoor.A new release date of the film is awaited.

Looks like Bollywood personalities and fans would have to wait for a little longer before the films can get free of sanskaari policies of the CBFC. An RTI query has revealed that the government has still not completed examining the report submitted by noted filmmaker Shyam Benegal last year. Moreover, they have also asked for wider consultations for the same. Pahlaj Nihalani became chairman of the CBFC in beginning of 2015 and ever since, he has become controversys favourite child. He started cutting even not-so-objectionable terms and sequences from films, that shocked one and all. He also started imposing cuts in adult-certified films. The James Bond film Spectre Anushka Sharma -starrer NH10 Anurag Kashyap -produced Udta Punjab , the recently released Lipstick Under My Burkha and many other films were compelled to cut for highly unjustified reasons and it became the topic of discussion everywhere. Finally, the government took note of the suggestion. On January 1, 2016, it came to light that the then I&B minister Arun Jaitley asked Shyam Benegal and a five-member committee to review the working of the CBFC and suggest changes. The filmmaker and the committee made it clear that they want the CBFC to be a Certification Board. They also asked for new grading system, like in USA, such as PG-13, NC-17 etc. The Phase 1 of the report was submitted in April 2016 while the Phase 2 was submitted in June 2016. When one year passed and no update was given by the Government as to when the report will be passed, RTI activist Paras Nath Singh filed an RTI in July this year to get the required details. The I&B ministry replied to the RTI query on August 1 which confirmed that they are still examining the report. Moreover, they are waiting to get wider consultations in this matter. The I&B ministry admitted that they are not maintaining daily status report. There is also no information as to until when will the government implement the changes in the process of censorship. This is surely a piece of information that would dishearten those who are desperately waiting for changes in the CBFC. Heres hoping the required changes are incorporated soon!

Sangram Singh may have stayed away from Bollywood for quite some time now but the wrestler is all set for a new page in his acting career. After debuting in the much forgettable Valentines Night , now the wrestler turned actor has bagged a film with none other than respected filmmaker Shyam Benegal.Moreover, Sangram Singh, who will be seen as the protagonist, will essay the role of a wrestler even on screen. Shyam Benegal has been keen on making a film on popular wrestler Khashaba Dadasaheb Jadhav and thought Sangram Singh fit the bill perfectly. From what we hear the preps for the same have already started with the wrestler turned actor working on his body and speech. After reducing already 6 kgs for the film, Sangram Singh is now all set to further decrease 10 kgs for his role as Jadhav. He is also undergoing training for acting from a teacher at the National School of Drama. As far as the film is concerned, it will focus on several aspects of Dadasaheb Jadhavs life including his 1948 Olympic achievements as well as how he turned sub inspector in 1955.

Earlier this month, we had reported that the I&B Ministry had appointed a special committee headed by the filmmaker Shyam Benegal , to suggest measures to help the Censor Board members understand the nuances of film certification. Now we hear that actor filmmaker Kamal Haasan will also be joining the committee. Apparently, this addition comes after the Ministry felt that more regions of the country should be given representation on the panel, suggesting that along with Hassan, directors Shaji Karun and Gautam Ghosh should be included on it. Once appointed the trio will join the other members of committee that includes filmmaker Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, adman Piyush Pandey and film journalist Bhawana Somayaa.