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Shailaja Bajpai: But you have not really made films with big stars. Even if so, very few. There were people like Shabana Azmi, Smita Patil and Naseeruddin Shah who you did help, but...

Shyam Benegal: They became stars eventually. But in the beginning it wasn’t possible but at that time I did want a star but couldn’t get one. Firstly at that time the subject seemed to be one that was so radical in nature and most stars wouldn’t want to be seen doing parts like this because after all when you are a star due to a certain public image, you’ve created for yourself and you cannot wear away from that particular image because if you do that you lose the very thing that makes you a star. Because the public image you have is larger than reality and if you work against that image, you had it, you know. The film might probably fail and damage the star’s reputation. So when you cast stars, you have to be very conscious of these aspects because you cannot do things that go against the image of the star. They also don’t have the kind of areas to manoeuvre as you might imagine. When you become a huge star, its very difficult to live up to the image you have created and you cant afford to do something totally different from what you are known for. It’s very rare and only few of them can do it. We do have some like Saif Ali Khan in Omkara, completely against his set image, you have cases like that but stars usually stay away from the parts that present them in a completely different light. But Amitabh can now do whatever he desires. He is at a stage in his career where he can do any kind of part. Probably all the challenges in his role, he is accepting today, he might have not been able to accept them 20 years back.

Coming back to my films. I couldnt get stars and when I failed to get them, I did the next best thing--choose really good actors. And luckily I managed to find excellent talent. All of them in their own right are brilliant actors. Some have star status; others have reputation for being brilliant actors. Now that was the route for me. It was later. Largely when Shashi Kapoor was producing and felt that we could work together. And I made two films with him. That time he was a star. Then of course we had others too. Rekha, for instance, was a reigning star when we made Kalyug. So I have used stars. And much later when I made Zubeida, for instance, Karishma was there in it. It is not that I haven’t used stars. Its just that it happened that way.

Leher Kala: What would you do differently, if you were to make Bose: The Forgotten Hero once again? Why do you think it didnt work?

Shyam Benegal: I would not make that film differently for the simple reason that I had chosen to make the film in that way and its also just three years back. I was simply interested in the five years 1940-45, when it escaped. I think it would have worked had it been promoted properly. It went absolutely cold into the cinema. No body ever knew that the film was ever released. That was number one. Secondly, was what I had done with the film i.e. I made three and a half hours long. And today such long films don’t get easy releases, especially in today’s age of multiplexes where they want to make money with frequent screenings. And a three and a half hour film in this case would mean that they are going to lose two shows in a given day in that particular hall. SO that is also why it didn’t do well on cinemas, although it seems to be coming on televisions every now and then. It has been that way for some time now.

Coomi Kapoor: Because of circumstances you had to work with unknown actors and actresses. But people you chose have gone on to become stars like Shabana and Smita Patil. So how you managed to spot their talent? There were whole lot of actors but how did you manage to say spot Shabana, for instance.

Well some came from the NSD and some from the Film and Television Institute, which used to run acting courses. But many of them emerged from the FTII. Shatrugan Sinha, for instance. As for Shabana, I was looking for actors for Ankur. I even asked Aparna sen for the role but she said it would be difficult to master the accent, as I wanted the film to be shot in Dakhini. So you had all those kind of problems. One day, this cousin of mine asked me if I had seen Kaifi Azmi’s daughter? I said “No”, as I didnt even know that kaifi had a daughter at that time. So my assistant told me, “she has just passed out of the Film Institute and is a very talented girl. Would you like to see her”? and I said “yes”. And as she walked into my office, I knew that I had my Lakhsmi, the main character in the film. There was something about her confidence, relaxed and totally unpretentious outlook. I didnt even audition her and told her that she is going to be in my film. And as she walked out, I told her that she will be even doing my second film. She went back and told her mother then and said that “there is this fraud who says he is going to make his first film with me and also his second film. I do not believe a word that he said.” But she actually did those films and other films too later.

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