Dev Benegal

Dev Benegal Biography

Dev Benegal is a National award winning filmmaker from India, known for directing English movies. He made his directorial debut with the English film, ‘English, August’ (1994), which won the 1995 National Film Award for Best Feature Film in English. Later Dev directed the controversial film Split Wide Open (1999), followed by Road, Movie (2009) and Bombay Samurai (2014). His films - English, August and Split Wide Open were shown at various international film festivals and received many awards as well. Though he has directed only four feature films in his 2-decade long career, he has directed numerous documentary films on various subjects. Famous film director Shyam Benegal is his uncle.

He was born in Mumbai, and brought up in Delhi. His family hails from Bengal. Many of his family members and relatives are associated with the field of art and cinema. His father Som Benegal was the younger brother of Shyam Benegal, the noted film director. Som was also a theater artist. Dev is a relative to legendary filmmaker and actor Guru Dutt. B. C. Sanyal – a doyen of Indian art is his uncle. Sanyal’s wife is Dev’s maternal aunt. Thus the famous theater artist and costume designer, Amba Sanyal is his cousin.

Dev completed diploma in Cinematography from Film School of New York University in the late 1980s before he started his career in films as an assistant. He worked under his uncle, Shyam Benegal in films like Kalyug (1980), Mandi (1983), and the famous documentary film on Satyajit Ray apart from a few short films. He directed a few documentary films in the 1980s. Kalpavriksha: The Tree of Life, Kanakambaram: Cloth of Gold, Anantarupam: The Infinite Forms etc are some of his documentary films.

In 1994 he scripted and directed the film - English, August which won National awards for best feature film in English. The film received Best First Film award at Gilberto Martinez Solares, apart from Silver Montgolfiere (Silver Grand Prix) and Special Jury Award at Torino International Film Festival. His second film - Split Wide Open (1999) was a bilingual film which invited a lot of controversies upon release in India. The movie won a Special Jury Prize at the 2000 Singapore International Film Festival.

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Updated: June 19, 2016