Dev Benegal
{{Short description|Indian filmmaker and screenwriter}}
{{EngvarB|date=August 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2020}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Dev Benegal
| image = MZT7F2r8.jpg
| alt =
| caption =
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|df=yes|1960|12|28}}
| birth_place = New Delhi, India
| death_date =
| death_place =
| other_names =
| known_for = English, August (1994)
| occupation = Film director, Screenwriter, Photographer
| nationality = Indian
| years_active = 1980–present
}}
Dev Benegal is an Indian filmmaker and screenwriter, most known for his debut film English, August (1994), which won the Best Feature Film in English at the 42nd National Film Awards.
Early life and education
Dev was born in New Delhi to Som Benegal, a theatre director, and his wife Suman.
Dev Benegal grew up in New Delhi. In 1979, he left Delhi for Mumbai (then Bombay), to pursue a career in movies.[https://www.livemint.com/Leisure/WSpGRyYp6T2MhHSbclWlrJ/Cinema-under-the-sky.html Cinema under the sky:] Mint, 21 December 2007. He won an Asian Cultural Council grant in Film, Video & Photography to study Film History in the Cinema Studies Program at New York University from 1989–90.[https://www.asianculturalcouncil.org/our-grantees/benegal-dev Grant awarded to Dev Benegal]{{Dead link|date=October 2022 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
Career
=Early career=
He began his career with legendary animator Ram Mohan and got his first job with Shashi Kapoor's Filmvalas.{{Cite news|url=https://www.thehindu.com/entertainment/movies/all-in-with-jennifer-and-shashi-kapoor/article22236669.ece|title=All in with Jennifer and Shashi Kapoor|last1=Kendal|first1=Dev Benegal Writes About His Experience of Working Shashi Kapoor and Jennifer|date=23 December 2017|work=The Hindu|access-date=2019-05-13|last2=Benegal|first2=Dev|language=en-IN|issn=0971-751X}} After assisting Shyam Benegal in films like Kalyug (1980), Mandi (1983) and his famous documentary on Satyajit Ray—Satyajit Ray, Filmmaker (1984)—Dev Benegal directed a series of short short films, Kalpavriksha: The Tree of Life (1988), Kanakambaram: Cloth: of Gold (1987), and Anantarupam: The Infinite Forms (1987). He directed several documentaries, including Shabana! (2003) with Indian film star Shabana Azmi and Abhivardhan: Building for a New Life (1992).
=Debut Feature Film and India's National Film Award=
In 1994 he wrote and directed his adaptation of Upamanyu Chatterjee's 1989 novel by the same name, based on the Indian Administrative Service, English, August (1994). The film received praise from critics for its modern and urban themes and was hailed as the cinematic counterpart to the later Anglo-Indian literary movement. It also won the Best Feature Film in English Award at National Film Awards,[http://www.tiff.net/filmsandschedules/films/roadmovie Road Movie schedule and Dev Benegal profile] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090916005505/http://tiff.net/filmsandschedules/films/roadmovie |date=16 September 2009 }} Toronto International Film Festival. and is now hailed as a landmark in contemporary Indian cinema as it ushered in a wave of independent Indian filmmakers, commonly known as "multiplex films" in India.[http://www.hindustantimes.com/cinema-news/cinema/Dev-Benegal-s-Road-Movie-to-premiere-at-Toronto-fest/455424/Article1-448040.aspx Dev Benegal's Road Movie to premiere at Toronto fest] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110606101928/http://www.hindustantimes.com/cinema-news/cinema/Dev-Benegal-s-Road-Movie-to-premiere-at-Toronto-fest/455424/Article1-448040.aspx |date=6 June 2011 }} Hindustan Times, 28 August 2009.
The New York Times wrote:{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1997/04/05/movies/alien-and-alone-in-his-own-country.html|title=Alien and Alone in His Own Country|newspaper=The New York Times|date=5 April 1997|last1=Gelder|first1=Lawrence Van}} In "English, August", his first feature film, Mr. Benegal deftly manages the feat of using the scalpel of humor to lay bare a young man's painful but edifying immersion in an alien culture within his own land and to deliver potent sociological and political messages. Irreverent humor, frustrated idealism and earnest compassion are blended with a keen sense of character, place and political reality in the auspicious English, August.
"English, August" won the Special Jury Award at the 12th Torino Film Festival 1994.{{cite web |url=http://www.torinofilmfest.org/en/history.html#historyBoxItem/12/premi |title=Torino Film Festival |website=www.torinofilmfest.org |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141023025410/http://www.torinofilmfest.org/en/history.html |archive-date=2014-10-23}} It won both the Silver Montgolfiere (Silver Grand Prix) and the Gilberto Martinez Solares prize for the Best First Film at the 16th Festival des 3 Continents, Nantes France, 1994{{Cite web|url=http://www.3continents.com/fr/programme/1994/|title=Festival 1994}}
=Later Films and Upcoming Projects=
Split Wide Open (1999), another Hinglish film, was also a critical success and won a Special Jury Prize at the 2000 Singapore International Film Festival. Writing for The Hindu, Savitha Padmanabhan said: "Split Wide Open is a bold and strong statement on the filth and lawlessness that have wormed their way into the city of dreams, Mumbai".{{Cite web|url=https://www.thehindu.com/thehindu/2000/03/31/stories/09310224.htm|website=The Hindu|title=Film Review: Split Wide Open|date=2000-03-31|access-date=2019-05-22}}{{dead link|date=April 2021|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}} In an article for The Times of India, the film's lead actor Rahul Bose wrote: "Critics flayed me: After Split Wide Open was released, critics ripped apart my character. To be an English-speaking slum-dweller who is also a smuggler, I spent a month in slums and even shadowed a cocaine-dealer for two weeks. Ironically, the criticism at home turned into praise when I won the Best Actor award for Split Wide Open at the Singapore Film Festival."{{Cite web|url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/hindi/bollywood/news/Rahul-Bose-Split-wide-open/articleshow/155386.cms|title=Rahul Bose: Split wide open - Times of India|website=The Times of India|language=en|access-date=2019-05-22}}
Benegal's latest film, Road, Movie (2009), about a travelling cinema troupe in Rajasthan, and starring Abhay Deol and Tannishtha Chatterjee as the lead, premiered at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival.[https://web.archive.org/web/20090925051236/http://ibnlive.in.com/news/road-movie-is-a-reflection-of-my-journey-says-director/101389-8-17.html Road, Movie is a reflection of my journey, says director] CNN IBN, 15 September 2009. In its review, The Hollywood Reporter wrote: "Dev Benegal's 'Road, Movie' takes you on a magical mystery tour into the heart of India and its robust cinema. It is, in fact, a road movie without the comma, but it is also about being on the road in a vast Indian landscape and about the phenomenon of touring cinemas that still exist in rural India. The film is specifically Indian, yet designed for wider appreciation in festivals and, if all goes well at the European Film Market, in cross-over releases in international territories."{{Cite web|url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/road-movie-film-review-29287|title=Road, Movie -- Film Review|website=The Hollywood Reporter|date=14 October 2010|language=en|access-date=2019-05-22}}
His project Bombay Samourai was an official selection for the Hong Kong Asia Film Finance Forum (HAF)[http://dearcinema.com/news/dev-benegala%C2%A2a%E2%80%9A%C2%ACa%E2%80%9E%C2%A2s-project-a%C2%A2a%E2%80%9A%C2%ACeoesamuraia%C2%A2a%E2%80%9A%C2%ACa%E2%80%9E%C2%A2-selected-for-haf/3542 Dev Benegal's project 'Samurai' Selected for HAF] By DearCinema.com, 6 January 2010. at the HongKong International Film Festival. This film is in development.[http://www.indiantelevision.com/aac/y2k11/aac291.php IFEA delegation in Hong Kong, attending Film & TV market]
Dev Benegal is also developing a film on the life of mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan.[https://web.archive.org/web/20110911161639/http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-03-20/hyderabad/29148457_1_uk-varsities-indian-students-british-council British Council ropes in Indian alumni to promote UK varsities]
Other works
=24x7 Making Movies=
In 2006, Benegal started a production program called 24×7 Making Movies, where he invited young people from all over India to come and make a film in 24 hours.{{Cite web|url=https://gigaom.com/2006/11/13/hungama-mobile-and-dev-benegal-get-users-to-create-content-for-internet-and/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150311063528/https://gigaom.com/2006/11/13/hungama-mobile-and-dev-benegal-get-users-to-create-content-for-internet-and/|url-status=dead|archive-date=11 March 2015|title=Hungama Mobile And Dev Benegal Get Users To Create Content For Internet And Mobile|last=Staff|first=Edit|date=13 November 2006|website=gigaom.com|language=en-US|access-date=2019-05-18}} The program has produced over 60 short feature films.
=Screenwriting=
Benegal is a long time advisor to eQuinoxe Screenwriting Workshops for Professionals.{{Cite web|url=http://www.equinoxe-europe.org/)%20(http://www.equinoxegermany.org/eq_europe/index.php?article_id=16|title=www.equinoxe-europe.org|website=www.equinoxe-europe.org|access-date=2019-05-18|archive-date=18 May 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190518173128/http://www.equinoxe-europe.org/)%2520(http://www.equinoxegermany.org/eq_europe/index.php%3Farticle_id%3D16|url-status=dead}} He has been invited by Under The Volcano, the international program of writing master classes to create and conduct a screenwriting master class for their 2020 program.{{Cite web|url=https://underthevolcano.org/screenwriting/|title=Screenwriting|website=UTV|language=en-US|access-date=2019-05-18|archive-date=18 May 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190518173128/https://underthevolcano.org/screenwriting/|url-status=dead}}
Themes and style
Pritish Nandy while describing Benegal's films, said: "Dev Benegal spearheads the brat pack of movie directors who are all out to prove that indian movies is not all pelvis thrusting and running around trees."{{Cite web|url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/Encounters-Dev-Benegal/articleshow/245294155.cms|title=Encounters - Dev Benegal - Times of India|website=The Times of India|access-date=2019-05-20}}
An academic paper (Prateek, Prateek. (2013). "Popart": The 'global' avatar of bollywood. 5. 247-257) on Bollywood draws upon insights from his work and describes it as follows: "Benegal's cinematic dialogue with Indianness of English along with Englishness of India, with narratives of belonging, and with the compacted heterogeneity of urban-industrial India, established in his early cinema... Benegal understands the gravity of the national metaphor of 'unity in diversity', and tries to manifest it in the polyphony of various languages and different dialects – English, Hindi, and Telugu. Equally important are his 'artistic' story-telling skills, a trait usually found in the art cinema: the capacity to create credible characters (human or otherwise, like Dadru, the frog) and cultures, skilful scene-setting, mastery of pace and timing, and power of imagination."{{Cite web|url=https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Prateek_Prateek3|title=Prateek Prateek {{!}} The University of Queensland, Brisbane {{!}} UQ|website=ResearchGate|language=en|access-date=2019-05-20}}
Filmography
Screenplays
Documentaries
| class="wikitable sortable" |
| Year
! Title ! class="unsortable"| Awards / Notes |
|---|
| 2024
|Ink and Ivory (In Post Production) |
|
| 2021
|[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wL6G9X5gjJk Water and Ink] |
|
| 2003
|Shabana! |
|
| 1997
|Merchants & Marxists: Stones of the Raj |
|
| 1993
|Field of Shadows |
|
| 1992
|Abhivardhan: Building for a New Life | |
| 1988
|Kalpavriksha: The Tree of Life |
|
| 1987
|Kanakambaram: Cloth of Gold |
|
| 1987
|Anantarupam: The Infinite Forms |
|
Awards
{{Awards table|2}}
|-
|2014
|Dead, End (screenplay)
|Network of Asian Fantastic Films Prize
|{{won}}
|Hong Kong International Film Festival
|-
|2011
|Best Sound for Vikram Joglekar{{Cite web|url=https://www.bollywoodhungama.com/news/features/winners-of-17th-annual-star-screen-awards-2011/|title = Winners of 17th Annual Star Screen Awards 2011 : Bollywood News - Bollywood Hungama| website=Bollywood Hungama |date = 6 January 2011}}
|{{won}}
|17th Annual Star Screen Awards
|-
|2010
|{{nominated}}
|Odesa International Film Festival
|-
|2009
|Tokyo Sakura Grand Prix Award
|{{nominated}}
|Tokyo International Film Festival
|-
|2000
|{{won}}
|Singapore International Film Festival
|-
|2000
|{{nominated}}
|Singapore International Film Festival
|-
|2000
|{{won}}
|Turnhout International Film Festival Belgium (Focus Op Het Zuiden)
|-
|2000
|{{nom}}
|Bratislava International Film Festival
|-
|2000
|Best Actor for Rahul Bose
|{{won}}
|Singapore International Film Festival
|-
| 1995
|{{won}}
|-
| 1994
|Silver Montgolfiere (Silver Grand Prix)
|{{won}}
|-
| 1994
|Golden Montgolfiere (Golden Grand Prix)
|{{nom}}
|-
|1994
|Gilberto Martinez Solares (Best First Film)
|{{won}}
|-
|1994
|{{won}}
|Torino International Film Festival
|-
|1994
|{{nom}}
|Torino International Film Festival
|-
|1988
|Kalpavriksha
|Certificate of Merit{{Cite web|url=http://devbenegal.com/about/awards/|title=Awards & Citations – Dev Benegal|language=en-US|access-date=2019-05-15}}
|{{won}}
|Indian Documentary Producers Association Awards for Excellence
|-
|1987
|Anantarupam
|{{won}}
|Indian Documentary Producers Association Awards for Excellence
|-
|1987
|Anantarupam
|{{won}}
|Indian Documentary Producers Association Awards for Excellence
{{end}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [http://devbenegal.com Dev Benegal Weblog]
- {{IMDb name|id=0070865|name=Dev Benegal}}
- {{AlloCiné name|62285}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Benegal, Dev}}
Category:Film directors from Delhi
Category:Hindi-language film directors
Category:Indian male screenwriters
Category:Indian documentary filmmakers
Category:20th-century Indian screenwriters