BJP MP Manoj Tiwari called the death of famous filmmaker Shyam Benegal a big loss for Indian cinema

Manoj Tiwari, a BJP MP, has called the passing of renowned director Shyam Benegal a huge blow to Indian cinema.

The 90-year-old director, who is most remembered for his contributions to parallel cinema, died on Monday. While receiving treatment for chronic renal disease at Wockhardt Hospital in Mumbai, Benegal passed away at 6:38 p.m.

The BJP MP said, “Shyam Benegal ji’s death is a big loss to our Indian cinema,” in an interview with ANI, praising Benegal’s services to the film industry. Shyam Benegal is regarded as a well-known figure in the creative cinema industry. He introduced issues pertaining to impoverished families and towns on the silver screen.

I was devastated to learn about Shyam Benegal’s passing, and Bollywood as a whole is also grieving right now. Indian film gained a great reputation because to Shyam Benegal ji, who left a huge legacy.

In the 1970s and 1980s, Benegal became a leading figure in the Indian parallel cinema movement thanks to his films Ankur, Nishant, Manthan, and Bhumika. In addition to winning the V. Shantaram Lifetime Achievement Award in 2018, Benegal was recognized seven times with the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi.

Benegal was born on December 14, 1934, in Hyderabad, into a Konkani-speaking Chitrapur Saraswat Brahmin family. He worked closely with performers from FTII and NSD, such as Amrish Puri, Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri, Smita Patil, Shabana Azmi, and Kulbhushan Kharbanda.

His works profoundly addressed pertinent socio-political issues and made a lasting impression on viewers. His most recent endeavor, Mujib: The Making of a Nation (2023), was a co-production between India and Bangladesh that portrayed the life of Bangladesh’s founding father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. The biographical film, which was shot extensively in both nations during the COVID-19 epidemic, was another feather in an already impressive hat.

Benegal made substantial contributions to television and documentaries in addition to feature pictures. In Indian television, his classic shows Samvidhaan and Bharat Ek Khoj continue to be standards.

In addition, he was a member of prominent juries, such as the 14th Moscow International Film Festival (1985) and the 35th National Film Awards (1988), and he was the Director of the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) from 1980 to 1986.