Dev Benegal is an Indian filmmaker and screenwriter, most known for his debut film ''

English, August ''English, August: An Indian Story'' is a novel by Indian author Upamanyu Chatterjee written in English, first published in 1988. It was adapted into a film of the same name in 1994. The novel portrays the struggle of a civil servant who is po ...

'' (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 New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament Ho ...

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.Cinema under the sky:

Mint MiNT is Now TOS (MiNT) is a free software alternative operating system kernel for the Atari ST system and its successors. It is a multi-tasking alternative to TOS and MagiC. Together with the free system components fVDI device drivers, XaA ...

, 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 New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, th ...

from 1989–90.Grant awarded to Dev Benegal
/ref>

Career

Early career

He began his career with legendary animator

Ram Mohan Ram Mohan (26 August 1931 – 11 October 2019) was an Indian animator, title designer and design educator, who was also known as father of Indian Animation and was a veteran in the Indian animation industry, who started his career at the Cartoo ...

and got his first job with Shashi Kapoor's Filmvalas. After assisting Shyam Benegal in films like '' Kalyug'' (1980), ''

Mandi Mandi may refer to: Places * Mandı, Azerbaijan India * Mandi, Jammu and Kashmir, a town on the Mandi River in the Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir * Mandi, Himachal Pradesh, a city in Himachal Pradesh ** Mandi State, former princely sta ...

'' (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 Shabana Azmi (born 18 September 1950) is an Indian actress of Hindi film, television and theatre. One of India's most acclaimed actresses, Azmi is known for her portrayals of distinctive, often unconventional female characters across several ge ...

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 The Indian Administrative Service (IAS) is the administrative arm of the All India Services of Government of India. Considered the premier civil service of India, the IAS is one of the three arms of the All India Services along with the Indian ...

, ''

'' (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,Road Movie schedule and Dev Benegal profile

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a perman ...

. 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.Dev Benegal's Road Movie to premiere at Toronto fest

Hindustan Times ''Hindustan Times'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper based in Delhi. It is the flagship publication of HT Media, an entity controlled by the KK Birla family, and is owned by Shobhana Bhartia. It was founded by Sunder Singh Ly ...

, 28 August 2009. The New York Times wrote: In "

", 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. 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

Later Films and Upcoming Projects

Split Wide Open ''Split Wide Open'' is a 1999 Indian film directed by Dev Benegal. It is his second feature film after '' English, August'' (1994). The film primarily deals with the Water conflicts in the slums of Bombay, and paedophilia, and also looks at the s ...

'' (1999), another Hinglish film, was also a critical success and won a Special Jury Prize at the 2000

Singapore International Film Festival The Singapore International Film Festival (SGIFF) ( Chinese: 新加坡国际电影节) is the longest-running film festival in Singapore. Founded in 1987, the festival has a focus on showcasing international films and providing a global platform fo ...

. Writing for

The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It began as a weekly in 1878 and became a daily in 1889. It is one of the Indian newspapers of record and the secon ...

, 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". In an article for

The Times of India ''The Times of India'', also known by its abbreviation ''TOI'', is an Indian English-language daily newspaper and digital news media owned and managed by The Times Group. It is the third-largest newspaper in India by circulation and largest ...

, the film's lead actor

Rahul Bose Rahul Bose (born 27 July 1967) is an Indian actor, director, screenwriter, and social activist. Bose has appeared in Bengali films such as '' Mr. and Mrs. Iyer'', '' Kalpurush'', ''Anuranan'', ''Antaheen'', ''Laptop'' and ''The Japanese Wife''. ...

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." Benegal's latest film, ''

Road, Movie ''Road, Movie'' ( hi, रोड, मूवी) is a 2009 Indian road movie directed by Dev Benegal, and starring Abhay Deol, Tannishtha Chatterjee, and Satish Kaushik. It premiered at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival and opened the se ...

'' (2009), about a travelling cinema troupe in Rajasthan, and starring Abhay Deol and

Tannishtha Chatterjee Tannishtha Chatterjee is an Indian actress and director best known in the west for her performance in the British film ''Brick Lane'' (2007), the film adaptation of Monica Ali's best selling novel of the same name Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a perman ...

. In its review,

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Hollywood film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade paper, and in 2010 switched to a weekly larg ...

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." His project ''Bombay Samourai'' was an official selection for the Hong Kong Asia Film Finance Forum (HAF) at the HongKong International Film Festival. This film is in development. Dev Benegal is also developing a film on the life of mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan.

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. The program has produced over 60 short feature films.

Screenwriting

Benegal is a long time advisor to eQuinoxe Screenwriting Workshops for Professionals. 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.

Themes and style

Pritish Nandy Pritish Nandy (born 15 January 1951) is an Indian poet, painter, journalist, parliamentarian, media and television personality, animal activist and maker of films, TV and streaming content. He was a parliamentarian in the Rajya Sabha from Mahara ...

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." 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."

Filmography

Screenplays

Documentaries

Awards

, - , 2014 , Dead, End ''(screenplay)'' , Network of Asian Fantastic Films Prize , ,

Hong Kong International Film Festival The Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF), is one of Asia’s oldest international film festivals. Founded in 1976, the festival features different movies, filmmakers from different countries in Hong Kong. HKIFF screens around 230 films ...

, - , 2011 ,

, Best Sound for Vikram Joglekar , , 17th Annual Star

Screen Awards The Screen Awards is an annual awards ceremony held in India honouring professional excellence in Bollywood. The nomination and award selection is done by a panel of distinguished professionals from the industry. The awards were introduced by t ...

, - , 2010 ,

, Golden Duke Award , ,

Odessa International Film Festival The Odesa International Film Festival ( uk, Оде́ський міжнаро́дний кінофестива́ль) is an annual film festival held in the middle of July in Odesa. Since 2016 the festival program has consisted of three parts: ...

, - , 2009 ,

, Tokyo Sakura Grand Prix Award , ,

Tokyo International Film Festival The is a film festival established in 1985. The event was held biennially from 1985 to 1991 and annually thereafter. Along with the Shanghai International Film Festival, it is one of Asia's competitive film festivals, and is considered to be the ...

, - , 2000 ,

, Special Jury Prize , ,

, - , 2000 ,

, Silver Screen Award , ,

, - , 2000 ,

, The Grand Prix , , Turnhout International Film Festival Belgium (Focus Op Het Zuiden) , - , 2000 ,

, Grand Prix , ,

Bratislava International Film Festival The Bratislava International Film Festival (also known as Bratislava IFF) is an international film festival established in 1999 and held annually in Bratislava, Slovakia. Apart from the international competition programme, it also regularly feature ...

, - , 2000 ,

, Best Actor for

, ,

, - , 1995 ,

, Best Feature Film in English , , National Film Awards , - , 1994 ,

, Silver Montgolfiere (Silver Grand Prix) , ,

Festival des 3 Continents The Festival des 3 Continents is an annual film festival held since 1979 in Nantes, France, and is devoted to the cinemas of Asia, and Africa and Latin America. It was founded by Philippe and Alain Jalladeau.English, August ''English, August: An Indian Story'' is a novel by Indian author Upamanyu Chatterjee written in English, first published in 1988. It was adapted into a film of the same name in 1994. The novel portrays the struggle of a civil servant who is po ...

, Golden Montgolfiere (Golden Grand Prix) , ,

, Gilberto Martinez Solares (Best First Film) , ,

, Special Jury Award , ,

Torino International Film Festival The Torino Film Festival (also called the Turin Film Festival, TFF) is an international film festival held annually in Turin, Italy. Held every November, it is the second largest film festival in Italy, following the Venice Film Festival. It was f ...

, - , 1994 ,

, Prize of the City of Torino , ,

, - , 1988 , Kalpavriksha , Certificate of Merit , , Indian Documentary Producers Association Awards for Excellence , - , 1987 , Anantarupam , Special Jury Award , , Indian Documentary Producers Association Awards for Excellence , - , 1987 , Anantarupam , Best Cinematography , , Indian Documentary Producers Association Awards for Excellence

References

External links

Dev Benegal Weblog
* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Benegal, Dev 1960 births Living people Film directors from Delhi Hindi-language film directors Indian male screenwriters Indian documentary filmmakers 20th-century Indian film directors 21st-century Indian film directors