It’s doubtful if there remains another filmmaker like Shyam Benegal whose repertoire is filled with cinematic gems and hence, his passing on Monday is nothing short of an immense loss for Indian cinema. Widely regarded as one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, Benegal directed some of the industry’s most iconic films and among his many contributions, Manthan (1976) stands out as a masterpiece, although its production was fraught with challenges.
In a conversation with SCREEN a few months ago, Benegal recalled fondly about making the movie and recounted the struggles the team endured back then. “Everything was recorded on the spot, it was sync shooting. But the funny part of it was that we were not prepared for any of that when we went there to shoot. We were shooting with a camera which was very noisy, so we had to make a mattress to lodge the camera in so it wouldn’t make so much sound. One thing or the other kept happening, it was like reinventing photography. It was quite ridiculous, the way we were working when we were shooting,” he said.
Smita Patil in a still from Manthan. (Express archive photo)
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Starring Smita Patil, Girish Karnad, Naseeruddin Shah and Amrish Puri in key roles, Manthan explored the White Revolution in India. Known for his wit, Shyam Benegal also admitted his concerns about working with Naseeruddin Shah, who was frequently high at the time. “Half the time I was very worried about him because he used to smoke a lot of weed at that time and I used to get very worried whether he is going to do his work properly or not, whether he is going to fly off the handle.”
He also shared with us anecdotes about the unique challenges faced during production. “Naseer and Smita were asked to wear the same costumes for all the shoot days, without changing. Naseer took it quite literally, he never changed. He was in the same clothes from the day he started shooting till the day he finished. Smita, although she wore the same clothes, was very diligent about washing them. She had two sets of clothes so she would wear one and wash one, things used to dry pretty quickly.”
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Girish Karnad and Kulbhushan Kharbanda in a still from Manthan. (Express archive photo)
Shyam Benegal also recalled that the team filmed in Sanganva, a village in Gujarat’s Rajkot district, located 50 miles from the nearest town. With limited access to resources, the cast and crew had to adapt to a self-sufficient way of life. He said, “So what used to happen was that we were staying there as a kind of self contained unit. We were cooking for ourselves, we stayed in two houses and one of those houses was owned by the man who owned the Royal Opera House in Bombay. There were about three bedrooms in it and a big hall so we could all out our bedding down and go to sleep at night. We would roll them up in the morning and double it as our workspace. We stayed like we were camping. We were like that for about 45-50 days so we got used to that except the winters, they were dreadful. During the day we would be beset by flies and you had to keep the flies out and burn incense sticks to keep them away so we could shoot (laughs).”
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