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Ramesh Benegal, an uncle of Mr. Shyam Benegal was recruited personally by Subhas Chandra Bose to be trained as a pilot. Ramesh Benegal was about 15 years old and living in Burma at that time. He trained in Japan as a pilot and after independence joined the Indian Air Force as a pilot.

Mr. Benegal's Favorites:

Author: Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Film: Tokyo Story

Director: Francis Ford Coppola

Actor: Smita Patil

Food: Japanese Cuisine

 
   
 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
 

Entertainment

In Conversation with Shyam Benegal

Film Director, Writer, Producer and MP .

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In our fourth segment Mr. Shyam Benegal talks about his last film: Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose: The Forgotten Hero. It took a long time to research and make the movie, and when the movie was released last year there was quite a bit of controversy surrounding it. Mr. Benegal talks about that and Justice Mukherjee Commission's findings on Bose. Interestingly the findings of the commission will be tabled in the Parliament in early May, which Mr. Benegal will attend as an MP.

 

Growing up Mr. Benegal heard about Bose and his Indian National Army from his uncle Ramesh Benegal, who was recruited by Bose as a teenager and sent to Japan to train as a pilot. After independence, Ramesh Benegal joined the Indian Air Force from where he retired as Air Commodore. Mr. Benegal idolized his uncle as a child and was fascinated by the stores that he heard from him.

Mr. Benegal made his first feature film Ankur in 1973. Everybody in the film was a newcomer, except for the camera person Govind Nihalani.

After the success of Ankur, Mr. Benegal went on to make films like Mandi, Nishant, Bhumika, Junoon, Manthan, Kalyug, Zubeida and Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose: The Forgotten Hero .

Mr. Benegal introduced many talented actors like Shabana Azmi, Anant Nag, Smita Patil, and Naseerudin Shah among others to the Indian film industry.

Besides feature films, Mr. Benegal has made TV documentaries and one of his best-known series is Bharat:Ek Khoj, based on Jawaharlal Nehru's Discovery of India.

A prolific film-maker, Mr. Benegal has no plans to retire and is busy with his next project called Chamki.

Cool Google Stuff

Girish Karnad Interviews Shyam Benegal

Shyam Benegal And The New Indian Cinema