‘I Wanted Waheeda Rehman For Ankur’

‘I
don’t
think
Waheeda
had
the
confidence
that
I
could
pull
it
off,
so
she
said
no.’

Shyam
Benegal
started
his
film
career
with
the
brilliant

Ankur.
The
1974
film
not
only
changed
the
course
of
his
career
but
it
also
made
its
debutante
actress
Shabana
Azmi
a
star.

The
film
was
a
big
part
of
the
parallel
cinema,
which
bloomed
in
the
1970s.

In
a
throwback
interview
with

Subhash
K
Jha,
Shyambabu
looks
back
at
the
film
and
says,
“I
was
advertising
in
Mumbai,
twiddling
my
thumb
and
waiting
to
make
my
film.
I
carried
the
script
of

Ankur
for
13
years
but
no
one
would
listen
to
it.”

Ankur
seems
like
the
successor
to
Satyajit
Ray’s

Pather
Panchali
and
Bimal
Roy’s

Do
Bigha
Zameen.

Yes,
perhaps.
It’s
too
difficult
for
me
to
say.
If
you
say
so,
I
accept
gracefully.

Do
you
feel
the
seedling
that
you
planted
years
ago
has
finally
grown
into
a
tree
that
you
can
look
back
at
proudly?

Oh
yes.
A
new
kind
of
cinema
had
happened
in
Bengali,
Malayalam
and
other
regional
languages.

Prior
to
Satyajit
Ray,
they
were
making
mainstream
films
in
Bengal.
That’s
bound
to
happen
when
any
art
form
becomes
an
industry.

When
somebody
comes
with
a
radical
idea,
it
takes
time
for
it
to
make
a
mark.

In
Hindi
cinema,
there
was
a
moribund
situation
for
many
years.
No
one
wanted
to
take
a
chance.

You
can’t
blame
them.
It
was
at
the
end
of
the
day,
a
business.
The
risk
factor
was
enormous
because
back
then,
when
I
made

Ankur,
cinema
was
not
recognised
as
an
industry.

People,
who
gave
you
money
to
make
movies,
were
traditional
moneylenders.

So
whatever
changes
happened
in
the
way
we
made
movies
had
to
happen
within
the
given
situation.
One
had
to
go
by
the
rules
of
commercial
cinema.

Would
you
call

Ankur
a
breakthrough
film?

Long
before
me,
Satyajit
Ray’s

Pather
Panchali
got
the
urban
middle
class
interested
in
cinema.

Earlier,
they
had
little
interest
in
cinema.
But
Ray
showed
that
the
language
of
cinema
doesn’t
have
to
be
one
particular
way.

The
change
also
happened
in
Malayalam
and
Kannada.

Then
in
Hindi
cinema,
talent
began
to
emerge
from
the
Film
and
Television
Institute
of
India.

The
government
also
began
to
show
some
interest
in
funding.
There
was
a
Film
Finance
Corporation
(FFC).

Mrs
Indira
Gandhi,
a
follower
of
Satyajit
Ray,
was
keenly
interested
to
see
our
cinema
evolve.
She
got
FFC
interested
in
a
different
kind
of
cinema.

Films
of
Basu
Chatterjee
and

Garam
Hava,
etc
happened.
Otherwise,
there
was
only
Bimal
Roy
trying
to
make
a
different
kind
of
cinema.

What
about
you?

I
was
advertising
in
Mumbai,
twiddling
my
thumb
and
waiting
to
make
my
film.

I
carried
the
script
of

Ankur
for
13
years
but
no
one
would
listen
to
it.

Finally,
the
person
who
picked
up
the
gambit
of
producing
my
film
was
a
major
advertising-distributor:
Lalit
M
Bijlani
and
his
partner
Freni
Variava.

I
used
to
meet
Lalit
socially.
In
what
was
probably
a
drunken
outburst,
Lalit
told
me
at
a
party,
‘Listen,
you’ve
been
saying
you
want
to
make
a
film
for
so
long.
But
why
don’t
you
make
it?’

I
asked
if
he
would
put
money
in
it.
He
said
yes.

Lalit
was
not
a
film
producer.
Because
I
made

Ankur
for
him,
he
started
Blaze
Productions
and
produced
my
next
four
films.

How
did

Ankur
make
such
an
impact?

I
had
this
great
advantage
that
others
who
came
in
with
an
alternative
cinema
like
Mani
Kaul
and
Kumar
Shahani
did
not
have:
I
had
a
readymade
distribution
network.

Lalit
Bijlani
had
a
big
network
of
cinema
halls.
He
could
release

Ankur
extensively.

Also,
this
was
after
the
Indo-Pak
war.
The
movement
of
foreign
exchange
out
of
the
country
was
being
discouraged.

Instead
of
getting
American
films
into
India,
she
(Mrs
Gandhi)
encouraged
production
of
the
kind
of
cinema
that
the
sophisticated
middle
class
would
like.

Ankur
filled
that
lacuna.
The
mainstream
media
was
hugely
supportive.
It
was
a
success.

So
was

Nishant,
which
came
after

Ankur,
although
it
was
a
much
darker
film.

If
I
made

Nishant
today,
it
would
fail.
In
fact,
my
only
film
that
failed
when
it
opened
was

Bhumika.

Coming
to
the
casting…

To
start
with,
I
wanted
Waheeda
Rehman.
She
was
not
only
a
star
but
also
a
fine
actress.
I
used
to
meet
her
frequently
because
she
was
Guru
Dutt’s
heroine.
(Guru
Dutt
was
Benegal’s
second
cousin.)

So
she
was
the
first
actress
I
asked.

I
don’t
think
she
had
the
confidence
that
I
could
pull
it
off,
so
she
said
no.

I
started
looking
around.

I
approached
the
famous
South
Indian
actress
Sharda.
I
went
to
meet
her
in
Chennai.

She
seemed
interested
but
finally
said
no.

I
think
the
role
was
too
daunting.
The
character
has
an
extra-marital
affair
and
doesn’t
regret
having
a
baby
out
of
wedlock.

After
that,
I
thought
of
Aparna
Sen.
She
didn’t
say
no
because
of
the
character
but
because
she
felt
she
wouldn’t
be
able
to
carry
off
the
Andhra
dialect.

I
asked
Anju
Mahendroo.
She
used
to
be
my
model,
very
lively
and
entertaining.

I
don’t
know
how
these
actresses
would
have
played
the
character
because
one
can’t
imagine
anyone
but
Shabana
doing
it.

How
did
Shabana
Azmi
come
into
the
picture?

I
was
wondering
what
to
do
next
and
whom
to
approach,
when
my
assistant
suggested
Shabana
Azmi.

I
didn’t
even
know
who
she
was
though
I
had
met
her
father
Kaifi
Azmi
a
few
times.

I
knew
her
mother
Shaukat,
a
fine
theatre
actress.

A
meeting
was
set
up.

When
I
saw
her,
I
knew
immediately
that
she
was
correct
for
the
part,
although
she
was
dressed
in
model-like
clothes.

She
didn’t
know
what
kind
of
film
I
had
in
mind.

She
was
sure
of
doing
the
part
but
her
mother
was
not.

You
see,
I
offered
Shabana
another
part
in

Nishant
along
with

Ankur.

Shaukat
wondered
what
kind
of
a
fraud
film-maker
I
was.

‘He
hasn’t
made
one
film
and
he’s
talking
about
another,’
Shaukat
said.

Sadhu
Meher
and
Anant
Nag
are
also
brilliant
in

Ankur…

All
of
them
except
Govind
Nihalani
were
new
to
cinema.

Sadhu
used
to
be
my
assistant
on
my
documentaries.

You
shot
on
location?

I
went
to
the
same
area
where
the
actual
incident
had
happened.
I
developed
the
script
from
the
short
story
that
I
had
written.

Shooting
on
location
was
easier
back
then
because
hardly
any
film
was
shot
on
location.

They
shot
in
studios.
Now
everyone
shoots
on
location.

Whom
would
you
consider
your
true
successors?

I
can’t
say.
After

Ankur,
a
lot
of
good
work
started
to
be
done
but
the
movement
didn’t
go
beyond
a
decade.

In
the
1980s,
television
happened,
so
people
preferred
to
sit
at
home
and
watch
television.
A
whole
new
society
of
migrants
emerged,
and
their
definition
of
cinema
entertainment
was
very
different.

There
was
low
investment
in
cinema.

The
big
multi-starrer
blockbuster
movies
took
over
in
the
1980s,
except
for
Amitabh
Bachchan
who
was
a
one-man
blockbuster,
and
alternative
cinema
went
into
hibernation.

In
the
late
1990s,
television
became
even
bigger
and
people
started
wondering
where
the
alternative
cinema
was.

Multiplexes
came
into
being.

Corporates
came
into
business.

They
are
now
interested
in
all
kinds
of
films.

Today,
you
have
Shoojit
Sircar
making

Vicky
Donor,
Sujoy
Ghosh
makes

Kahaani
and
Habib
Faizal
makes

Ishaqzaade.

Then
there
is
Vishal
Bhardwaj.

I
see
this
as
a
period
of
renaissance.

Film-makers
are
unfettered
today.