Legendary Bollywood filmmaker Shyam Benegal passed away. He was undergoing treatment for chronic kidney disease in the ICU at Mumbai’s Wockhardt Hospital. The pioneer of parallel cinema in India has died just ten days after he turned 90 on December 14. He is survived by his wife, Nira Benegal, and daughter, Pia Benegal.
Shyam Benegal redefined Indian parallel cinema and led the New Wave movement in the 1970s and 1980s. Acclaimed for his realistic filmmaking and thought-provoking social commentary, Shyam Benegal wrote and directed numerous award-winning classics, including Mammo, Sardari Begum, Bhumika, Mandi, Manthan, Suraj Ka Saatvaan Ghoda, and many others. His last creation was the biopic Mujib: The Making of a Nation, which was released in 2023.
Remarkably, on his 90th birthday, Shyam Benegal had announced that he was working on two or three projects and intended to make his next film upon his discharge. In a humongous achievement, Shyam Benegal won as many as 18 National Awards. He was honored with the Padma Bhushan, India’s second highest civilian award, in 1991 and the country’s highest honor in the world of cinema, Dada Saheb Phalke, in 2005.
