‘Smita Didn’t Want Anything To Do With Films’

‘Naseer
does
not
have
the
sense
of
humour
that
Om
Puri
has.’
‘Also
Om
has
a
great
deal
of
compassion
as
a
human
being.
Naseer
was
too
focused
on
his
own
self.’
A
fascinating
excerpt
from
Sangeeta
Datta’s
book

Shyam
Benegal.

I
was
casting
for

Nishant,
and
I
couldn’t
find
an
actor
to
play
the
part
of
Rukmini.

One
day
I
was
watching
the
news
on
television,
and
I
took
notice
of
this
very
attractive
newsreader
[Smita
Patil].
The
camera
was
really
loving
her,
she
had
great
presence.

I
asked
my
sound
recordist
Hiten
Ghosh,
who
had
just
started
with
me
fresh
from
the
Film
Institute.
He
said
he
knew
her,
and
he
spoke
to
the
family.

Smita’s
mother
had
seen

Ankur
and
was
very
interested
in
her
daughter
working
with
me.

Smita,
of
course,
was
most
reluctant.
She
did
not
want
to
have
anything
to
do
with
films.

She
came
to
see
me
twice,
once
with
her
father
who
was
then
minister
of
the
Maharashtra
cabinet.
I
finally
managed
to
persuade
her
to
act
in

Nishant.

She
was
not
a
trained
actress,
to
see
what
her
acting
capabilities
were
I
put
her
in

Charandas
Chor,
a
film
made
for
the
Children’s
Film
Society.
She
was
very
good.
She
was
absolutely
first
class.

There
was
no
question
after
that
she
would
be
ideal
for

Manthan.
Shabana
at
that
time
was
riding
very
high,
and
she
said
no
to

Manthan,
so
I
took
Smita,
and
there
was
no
question
in
my
mind
that
she
was
to
be
in

Bhumika.

Until
the
time
we
did

Bhumika,
Smita
still
was
not
sure
that
she
wanted
to
be
an
actress.

For

Nishant,
the
problem
more
than
her
was
her
principal
of
St
Xavier’s
College.
He
refused
to
let
her
go
for
the
shoot
because
it
was
close
to
exams.

For
the
missionary
padres,
film
was
just
a
vulgar
obscenity,
so
I
had
to
meet
him
and
convince
him.

With
the
National
Award
for

Bhumika
she
found
her
métier,
she
knew
she
wanted
to
be
an
actress.
She
was
as
successful
as
Shabana.

People
were
starting
to
talk
about
her
in
the
same
way.
They
were
the
new
breed
of
actresses
working
in
the
realist
genre.

Naseeruddin
Shah
was
noticed
quite
a
lot
for

Manthan.
He
started
getting
all
kind
of
roles
in
mainstream
cinema
after

Manthan.
He,
of
course,
considers

Manthan
to
be
the
least
successful
of
his
performances.
Whatever
he
does
he
gives
it
his
best.
His
commitment
to
acting
is
total.

There
is
no
other
thing
on
his
mind
except
to
give
the
best
possible
performance.
But
he
does
not
have
the
sense
of
humour
that
Om
Puri
has.
Also
Om
has
a
great
deal
of
compassion
as
a
human
being.
Naseer
was
too
focused
on
his
own
self.

Om
is
a
more
affable
human
being.

More
or
less
by
now
I
had
my
own
repertory
cast
members,
Shabana
Azmi,
Smita
Patil,
Naseer,
Girish
Karnad,
Kulbhushan
Kharbanda.

Girish
was
never
serious
about
acting,
he
concentrated
on
writing.
He
is
one
of
the
best
playwrights
we
have
produced
in
recent
years.
His
acting
came
second
to
that.
I
think
he
made
a
pretty
handsome
livelihood
as
an
actor.

Mohan
Agashe
goes
back
to
his
theatre
days
in
Theatre
Academy.
But
I
haven’t
cast
him
after

Bhumika,
which
is
almost
25
years
now.
I
was
taking
graduates
from
the
National
School
of
Drama.

Govind
(Nihalani)
was
my
cameraman
for
eleven
films
and
seven
documentaries.

After
that
Ashok
Mehta
came
in
and
other
cameramen.

Rajan
Kothari
has
worked
for
the
last
three
films.

My
editor
Bhanu
Divkar
fell
ill
and
eventually
died,
after
which
there
have
been
various
editors
until
recently
—
Asheem
Sinha
has
worked
as
editor
for
the
last
four
films.

I
had
V
K
Murthy
[Guru
Dutt’s
cinematographer]
for
one
feature
film
plus
all
of

Bharat
Ek
Khoj;
Vanraj
Bhatia
as
music
director.

Mandi
—
I
used
classical
Urdu
poets
and
Majrooh
Sultanpuri,
also
in

Bhumika.

Kaifi
Azmi
wrote
the
dialogues
for

Manthan
and
won
the
National
Award
for
that.

Javed
Akhtar
has
written
the
songs
for

Sardari
Begum
and

Zubeidaa.

Gulzar
wrote
the
song
for

Mammo.

Govind
Nihalani:
Benegal’s
cinematographer
and
film-maker

Film-makers
like
Shyam
got
with
them
a
world
view.
He
took
a
position
vis-à-vis
the
reality
that
he
depicted
—
as
a
director
he
had
a
taken
position.
My
political
education
began
in
his
company.

A
fine
combination
of
passion
and
the
cerebral,
he
is
one
director
who
struck
a
balance
between
personal
experience
and
ideology
in
his
films.

Shyam’s
contribution
has
been
immense,
he
made
films
without
government
support,
did
not
succumb
to
mainstream
formula,
gave
viewers
an
intelligent
choice
of
films,
also
proved
that
art
films
can
be
economically
viable.

Shyam
gave
his
kind
of
films
a
place
of
tremendous
respect
—
these
films
became
part
of
people’s
conversations.
Raising
questions,
suggesting
choices,
initiating
debate
was
very
important.
As
a
person
he
is
a
very
fine
human
being,
with
no
rancour,
helpful
even
to
his
worst
critics.
The
guy
is
a
good
man!

Excerpted
from

Shyam
Benegal
by
Sangeeta
Datta,
with
the
kind
permission
of
the
publishers
ROLI.