New Delhi, August 8
Noted film-maker and Rajya Sabha member Shyam Benegal has won the prestigious Dadasaheb Phalke award for 2005. The award - the nation's highest honour for cinema - is given by the government for outstanding contribution to the field of Indian cinema.
The award carries a cash prize of Rs 2,00,000, a Swarna Kamal and a shawl. It will be presented to Benegal by President Pratibha Devisingh Patil at a function later this year.
Recipient of the Padma Shri (1976) and Padma Bhushan (1991), Benegal is one of the leading film-makers in the country. His films have been widely acclaimed in India and at international film festivals in the last three decades. His first feature film ‘Ankur’ broke new ground from the cinematic trends of the seventies.
Some of his well-known films are
Nishant, Manthan, Bhumika, Kondura, Junoon, Kalyug, Mandi, Trikal, Suraj Ka Satwan Ghoda, Mammo, Sardari Begum, Samar, The Making of the Mahatma, Zubeida and Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose.
His televesion serial ‘Bharat Ek Khoj' based on Jawaharlal Nehru's book ‘Discovery of India' is still remembered by viewers.
Apart from fiction films, he has made a number of documentaries on subjects ranging from cultural anthropology, problems of industrialisation and music.
As chairman of the Film and Television Institute of India during 1980-83 and 1989-92, Benegal played an active role in shaping film education.
