Amitabh Bachchan pays tribute to Shyam Benegal: ‘We have lost another stalwart of film industry'

Tributes are pouring in for ace filmmaker Shyam Benegal, who died on Monday at the age of 90. Amitabh Bachchan shared his condolences on X.

Tributes are pouring in for ace filmmaker Shyam Benegal, who passed away on Monday at the age of 90. Benegal breathed his last at 6:38 pm at Wockhardt Hospital in Mumbai, where he was being treated for chronic kidney disease.

Amitabh Bachchan pays tribute to Shyam Benegal.

Amitabh Bachchan took to his X account on Tuesday to share his grief as he wrote, “T 5233 - We have lost another stalwart of the Film Industry today .. Shyam Benegal passes away .. Prayers and condolences.”

Actor Shabana Azmi, who worked closely with Benegal in several films, shared the funeral details on her Instagram Story. The last rites took place at 2 pm on Tuesday at the Shivaji Park Electric Crematorium in Dadar, Mumbai.

Other celebrities, including Nafisa Ali, Karisma Kapoor, and Ajay Devgn, remembered Benegal as a legend and praised his immense contributions to Indian cinema.

Benegal's films, including Ankur, Nishant, Manthan, and Bhumika, established him as a pioneer of the Indian parallel cinema movement in the 1970s and 1980s. Benegal was honoured with the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi seven times and received the V. Shantaram Lifetime Achievement Award in 2018.

Born on December 14, 1934, in a Konkani-speaking Chitrapur Saraswat Brahmin family in Hyderabad, Benegal collaborated extensively with actors from FTII and NSD, including Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri, Smita Patil, Shabana Azmi, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, and Amrish Puri.

His films left an indelible impact on audiences, addressing relevant socio-political themes with remarkable depth. His most recent project, Mujib: The Making of a Nation (2023), was an India-Bangladesh co-production depicting the life of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father of Bangladesh. Shot extensively in both countries during the COVID-19 pandemic, the biographical film added another feather to his illustrious cap.

In addition to feature films, Benegal contributed significantly to documentaries and television. His iconic series Bharat Ek Khoj and Samvidhaan remain benchmarks in Indian television.

He also served as the Director of the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) from 1980 to 1986 and was a member of prestigious juries, including the 14th Moscow International Film Festival (1985) and the 35th National Film Awards (1988).