Shyam Benegal had spent barely 20 hours at Swadhinpur to shoot the biopic Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose: The Forgotten Hero, but the people of this dusty Birbhum village have not forgotten the filmmaker.
Released in 2004, the film written and directed by Benegal focused on the last five years of Netaji’s life. It is considered one of the best biopics on the freedom fighter.
A key scene was shot at Swadhinpur, where a group of rural men and women who are followers of Netaji protests, holding the Indian flag, as a train carrying prisoners of the Indian National Army passes by.
“For that particular scene, he researched and zeroed in on Swadhinpur railway station in remote Bengal as it broadly matched the Gumoh railway station of 1941, which he wanted to feature in his film,” said theatre activist Amitabha Halder, who played a key role in arranging a group of people for the shoot.
Benegal later told Halder that he had chosen Swadhinpur after finding out that the tiny station had no concrete platforms and overhead wires.
The Gumoh station in what is now Jharkhand was renamed Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose station in 2009 in honour of the freedom fighter, who had boarded the Kalka Mail (now Netaji Express) from the station while fleeing the British Empire in 1941. That scene, however, was not shot at Swadhinpur.
After Benegal passed away on Monday evening in a Mumbai hospital, a pall of gloom hung over Swadhinpur as villagers who got a chance to interact with him recalled memories of the “gentleman filmmaker withoutany airs”.
The shooting of the train sequence. Sourced by The Telegraph
Halder said a railway official contacted him in early 2003 to inform him that Benegal was looking for a theatre activist who could arrange at least 150 rural men and women for a few scenes in a period film.
“It was a surprise for me that someone of Shyam Benegal’s stature would need my help for his film. I immediately agreed to do whatever the director needed,” said Halder.
“He was such a big name but a gentleman filmmaker without any airs,” he added.
According to Halder, he got the answer to his question on why Benegal needed his assistance a day before the shoot.
“He told me that he could have easily got a group from Calcutta, dressed in rural attire, but he wanted the scene to feel natural and spontaneous with rural people,” recounted the veteran theatre activist.
Bandana Banerjee, a retired economics teacher at Rampurhat Girls’ High School, acted as one of the women at the forefront of the crowd in the film. While speaking to this correspondent over the phone, she fondly recalled an instance during the filming.
“One person in the crowd was holding a polythene bag in his hand.... He (Benegal) noticed it and asked him to dump the polythene packet after explaining that there were no polythene bags during those days,” said Banerjee, who now lives in Calcutta.
“He had such an eye for detail.... I consider myself lucky that I saw him from such proximity,” she added.
For that scene, Benegal had arranged a steam engine and a wooden railway coach.
“He was so meticulous in his planning.... The unit wrapped up the shoot in 20 hours,” Banerjee recalled.
In addition to Benegal, actors Sachin Khedekar (who played Netaji) and Amrish Puri (who had a cameo) visited Birbhum with the other crew members.
“I saw him as a perfectionist. He took care of every small detail related to the shoot. When the film was released at Nandan (in Calcutta), I went to watch it,” said Koushik Aich, a performing artiste who said working with Benegal was a great lesson.
Aich said they were planning to organise a small event at the Swadhinpur railway station to pay tribute to Benegal.
Those who acted in the scene shot at Swadhinpur said Benegal was very caring about everyone around. “He personally trained the group and requested everyone to stay away from the tracks,” said a theatre artiste.
After the shoot, Benegal hosted the artistes at a high tea organised by the unit.
Recounting his experience, Halder said he had requested Benegal to remove his hat and pose with him as he had never seen him without his headgear.
“He laughed, removed his hat and sat next to me, posing for a small digital camera,” Halder said.
During the conversation with the local artistes, Benegal sometimes spoke in Bengali. When one of them curiously asked him how he knew Bengali, Benegal smiled and attributed his “little knowledge of the language” to Satyajit Ray.