Filmmaker Shyam Benegal cremated with full state honours

Shyam Benegal, pioneer of Indian parallel cinema, cremated with state honours; remembered for revolutionizing Indian cinema.

Veteran filmmaker Shyam Benegal, a pioneer of the parallel cinema movement in Indian cinema during the 1970s and 1980s, was cremated on Tuesday with full state honors and a three-gun salute. Benegal, known for films such as Ankur, Mandi, Nishant, and Junoon, passed away on Monday at a hospital due to chronic kidney disease.

The last rites of the filmmaker, who celebrated his 90th birthday on December 14, were held around 3 p.m. at Dadar’s Shivaji Park crematorium.

Benegal’s contemporaries, colleagues, and younger generations of actors and artists joined his wife Nira and daughter Pia in paying their last respects to the icon, whose movies vividly captured the many realities of India.

Naseeruddin Shah, Rajit Kapoor, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, and Ila Arun, all of whom starred in several of Benegal’s films, were present to bid farewell to the director.

Also in attendance were actor Ratna Pathak Shah, her son Vivaan Shah, writer-poet Gulzar, director Hansal Mehta, lyricist-writer Javed Akhtar, and actors Divya Dutta, Boman Irani, Kunal Kapoor, and Anang Desai.

Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, whose Film Heritage Foundation recently restored Benegal’s 1976 classic Manthan for a screening at the Cannes Film Festival, was also present.

Gulzar remarked that what Benegal brought to cinema was a revolution that will never be replicated.