New Delhi: Veteran Indian cinema director Shyam Benegal has passed away. He was ill for a long time. He had made films like ‘Ankur’, ‘Zubaida’. He was also the director of popular serials like ‘Bharat Ek Khoj’. Shyam Benegal breathed his last at Breach Candy Hospital in Mumbai. He was awarded the Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan by the Government of India for his contribution to cinema. Shyam Benegal was one of the greatest filmmakers after the 70s.

Shyam Benegal had won many awards for his brilliant films, which include eighteen National Film Awards, one Filmfare Award and one Nandi Award. He was awarded the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, India’s highest honor in the field of cinema, in 2005. Shyam Benegal was born in Hyderabad. He started his career as a copywriter. The director made his first documentary film ‘Gher Baitha Ganga’ in Gujarati language in 1962. His first four feature films ‘Ankur’, ‘Nishant’, ‘Manthan’ and ‘Bhumika’ became symbols of new era cinema.

Great films were also made on famous compositions.
Shyam Benegal made films focusing on Muslim women of India in the 1990s, starting with ‘Mammo’. This film was released in 1994. He then narrated the lives of Indian Muslim women through ‘Sardari Begum’ and ‘Zubaida’. The director entered Bollywood mainstream cinema with ‘Zubaida’, in which Bollywood star Karisma Kapoor acted. The music of the film was composed by AR Rahman. Shyam Benegal made a film based on Dharamveer Bharti’s popular novel ‘Sooraj Ka Satvan Ghoda’ in 1992, which won the National Film Award for Best Film in Hindi in 1993.