Being Benegal

HYDERABAD: Shyam Benegal won the National Film Award for the best feature film seven times and is known for his women-centric movies. His ‘middle cinema’ included Ankur (1973), Nishant (1975), and Trikal (1985). Then came his first mainstream movie, Zubeidaa (2001), followed by Welcome to Sajjanpur (2010) and the political satire, Well Done, Abba (2010). Currently involved in Chamki Chameli, the 77-year-old genius shares his views on the future of Indian cinema and his role as chairman of the Ladakh film festival. What do you expect from the Ladakh Film Festival?This is a great opportunity for all young and aspiring film makers to showcase their work. It is the first time the movie industry is moving to Ladakh for a festival of this sort. I am just sitting on top of it all, like a bouquet of flowers, and would like to introduce the people to national and international movies.Do Indian movies have a promising future?Multiplexes have brought back movies to the public. Now movies have smaller budgets and still do well and get national awards. Where is Chamki Chameli headed?We are not getting the right producer for the movie and I do not have the patience to wait  for the stars. I am also working on another movie, based on the story of Noor Inayat Khan, the daughter of Inayat Khan and a descendant of Tipu Sultan, who served as a British-Indian spy during World War II.A recent film you enjoyed?I watched A Week with Marilyn, and Carnage by Roman Polanski. The latter was amazing and Polanski belongs to the same era as me. It is a film about four people in a room and the entire movie is shot in that one room. I also watched Midnight in Paris, which got me nostalgic about the city of love.A genre that is sadly unexplored in Indian cinema?We don’t need grand chases, detective or horror stories. Every movie needs to have the navrasa (the nine emotions), where every emotion should be focused on. We need original scripts. Somehow, Tamil movies are able to do that. Even when filmmakers make women centric movies, the women are always the victim and never celebrated.