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‘I have never met anyone so knowledgeable and with so much conviction, so much humility about everything he knew.’
IMAGE: Manoj Bajpayee and Karisma Kapoor in Zubeidaa.
“I got to work with Shyambabu a bit late in Zubeidaa because there was a lull in the parallel cinema movement,” Manoj Bajpayee tells Subhash K Jha.
“Zubeidaa was his attempt to get into the mainstream because he cast Karisma Kapoor and Rekha. I asked him one day, why have you gone for this kind of casting? He said, I’m making a film about palaces, the politics of the palace, and a love story set in it. The girl, played by Karisma Kapoor, has a film background. So I had to go for the right casting. Also, it was biographical.
“So his casting was just apt. He needed glamour in Zubeidaa and the only non-glamorous part was me. He told me I was the right choice to play a prince. It was me who was doubting his casting but he convinced me.
“He put me into a comfortable mind-space and said, just tell me who is better looking than you? He really made me comfortable with the way I looked.
“He told me the many ways to treat my character — the gait, the physicality of it. He helped me in so many ways. He treated me like a student on the set, and that was my privilege. That was my luck. It was such a learning experience.”
IMAGE: Karisma Kapoor, Rekha and Manoj Bajpayee in Zubeidaa.
Manoj feels Shyambabu proved that cinema is not only meant for entertainment.
“This popular opinion has been dominating the cinema scene in this country. He showed us that there is more to cinema than entertainment, that cinema as an art, cinema as an uncompromising medium which could attract its own audience.
“There was no OTT. There was nothing else beyond the cinemas to release films. He had to fight to get his film to the theatres. Then satellite came and he used it in a right way by putting out Discovery of India. I was doing theatre at that time.”
IMAGE: Karisma Kapoor and Rekha in Zubeidaa.
Manoj feels a thesis ought to be written on Benegal.
“You know, people pass away and we say good things about them. But in the true sense, there are two greats whom we will always miss for the huge contribution they have made in their respective fields — Zakir Hussain and Shyambabu. We lost them within days (of each other)! It’s not easy to fill this void.
“Mr Benegal was the leader of the parallel cinema, and later it became independent cinema. People who are making independent cinema today should bow down in his memory.
“He is the father of independent cinema in this country. Whenever we spoke to each other, we would talk about collaborating again. I had so much to learn on and off the camera from this great man.
“There are some filmmakers who leave an indelible impression, not only through their art but also through their discipline. People used to talk about Raj Kapoor and Guru Dutt like this.”
IMAGE: Rekha, Karisma Kapoor, Manoj Bajpayee, Ravi Jhankal and Rajit Kapoor in Zubeidaa.
“I spent some beautiful time with him, just conversing. I also had the fortune of sharing drinks with him. He loved his whiskey.
“I have never met anyone so knowledgeable and with so much conviction, so much humility about everything he knew.”
