‘I believe all my films are flawed. I simply forget about them. I don’t feel the need to burden myself by looking at what went wrong’

Shyam Benegal has been making highly-acclaimed films since the early seventies. In those days he had to struggle to find a footing since his themes were completely different from those of Bollywood. Over the years, he has continued to make movies with serious themes but found wide acceptance too. In an interaction with Express staff, moderated by Consulting Editor Shailaja Bajpai, Benegal spoke about recent trends in film making, film makers he admires, and how the village, the theme of many of his early films, has fallen off the map.

Shailaja Bajpai: I would request Mr Benegal to comment on his personal grouse about the period where he changed really his approach to cinema

Shyam Benegal: Well, when I started making films i.e. fiction films in the early 1970s, it took me a very long time really because most young people today make their very first feature films by the time they are in their mid 20s or early 30s. But when I made my first feature film in my late 30s, it had taken me 13 years of taking my script around to various producers, hoping that they would pick up the subjects on which I could make a film. Now that was a long journey and difficult simply because I was wanting to make films that were different from what was the prevailing form of films. And the prevailing form is what I now called as the traditional Indian cinema and I was very impatient with that kind of cinema at that time. I had to qualify because my views have changed somewhat because if something like entertainment, which the people of the entire country seem to enjoy most. When you are young, you can take a very strong position and say that you disagree with this kind of form, but there must be some reason why people enjoy certain films, which if you look at them at their face value you might say they are naive but they are not as naive as they seem. And all that you discover much later. But at that time it was important for me to say that I was not going to make films of that nature and I had to make a film that would clearly be my own expression in the cinema and also creatively speaking. I used to think that the traditional form of the Indian cinema...

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‘I believe all my films are flawed. I simply forget about them. I don’t feel the need to burden myself by looking at what went wrong’

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