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The year was 1976. India was warming up to a new kind of cinema, the kind that was irreverent but with its sensibilities and sensitivities in place. Shyam Benegal, a 42-year-old director who had planted the seed of a silent revolution in films with Ankur a few years ago, had his big international moment. Benegal was at Cannes. The film festival back when it was a true-blue film festival and not a L'Oreal fashion parade.
Nishant, the Shyam Benegal-directed film, was in competition at Cannes. When the film was sent to the festival, it was accompanied by a few posters from the NDFC (National Film Development Corporation).
The posters never reached Cannes. The director and his two lanky, dusky leading ladies did.
No one knew who this trio of Indians were or what they were doing so many miles away from home in the French Riviera. But when Smita Patil and Shabana Azmi paraded the beach in the finest of their 'south Indian saris' that morning in Cannes, the world of cinema took note. The Desis had arrived.
Shabana Azmi told author Maithili Rao later, "In a place where we had no money and everybody was throwing lavish parties, Shyam came up with this unique idea. He said, 'I want both of you [Azmi and Patil] to wear your finest South Indian saris and walk the promenade from eight in the morning.' So there we were, parading in our silk saris where everyone else was in beachwear! We were such a sight! When anyone looked at us, we'd grab them and say, 'We have a screening at such and such time, please come.' We were our own walking ads and we got a handsome amount of people into the theatre. That was the only way Smita and I could attract attention. We had absolutely no money to promote the film!" (Smita Patil: A Brief Incandescence, Harper Collins 2015)
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Not surprisingly, when Benegal threw this idea at Shabana and Smita, the latter was at a loss for words. She did not have those silk saris that Benegal was talking about!
So, the director had yet another solution to the plumage problem. He suggested that she go to Uma Da Cunha, well-known critic, film programmer and publicist.
That was Shyam Benegal.
Adman Benegal's advertising acumen was unparalleled. Of course, he had spent many years writing copy for an ad agency while the ankur of films took shape in his mind.
He burst on to the scene in 1973 with his first feature film, Ankur, which introduced actors Shabana Azmi and Anant Nag to the world. The three films that followed Ankur - Nishant (1975), Manthan (1976), and Bhumika (1977) - heralded the dawn of a new era in Indian filmmaking. It was the birth of New Cinema in India.
In the Seminal Seventies, Benegal gave Indian films many actor-stars. Shabana Azmi, Smita Patil, Naseeruddin Shah, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Om Puri, Mohan Agashe, Neena Gupta are the more prominent names from the Benegal school.
The working conditions on Benegal's films weren't ideal. There were no luxuries of vanity vans or fancy five-star hotels. Everyone did everything on a Benegal film - carrying lights, serving food, overseeing the edit, pitching in whenever necessary (or not). There were no starry tantrums, nor were there unreachable actors. The idea was to be part of a film that all these actors believed in.
Working with Shyam Benegal also meant no actors were big or small. These were ensemble films where the who's who of this new world order played roles long and short, even minor cameos without breaking a sweat. The actors who worked on these films often did so for free. At best a pittance. They worked with Benegal because they wanted to work with him. It was an act of faith and all of them jumped headfirst into it.
So, when Benegal pitted Shabana Azmi against Smita Patil in Nishant, he knew what he was doing. Nishant, meaning Night's End, became known for its female leads. Shabana got more screentime and the script weighed heavily in her favour. That never seemed an issue with Smita, who was in the film for, well, Shyam Benegal. It was also her first feature film.
Nishant's day-out at Cannes was under a two-film-old director, with two new actors. Smita Patil and Naseeruddin Shah both made their debuts with Nishant. The rest of the cast involved a dizzying list of actors: Shabana Azmi, Girish Karnad, Amrish Puri, Mohan Agashe, Anant Nag, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Sadhu Meher!
Nishant was nominated for the Palme d'Or at Cannes 1976 and back home, won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi.
It was Shyam Benegal who paved the way for a brave new world of filmmaking. Night's End, for a new dawn in Indian cinema.