Benegal film on Buddha will be in ancient langauge

Indian cinema is much bigger than Bollywood, noted film director Shyam Benegal said on the occasion of the screening of a retrospective of his works at the 2008 World Film Festival of Bangkok opening yesterday.

Speaking of his forthcoming film on the life of the Buddha, Benegal said it is a joint production with the Sri Lankan film industry. The film’s script is being studied by scholars in Sri Lanka.

Its cast would include artistes from India and Sri Lanka “and whoever else will participate in the film”, he said. The language of the film would be Ardh-Magadhi which was spoken in the time of the Buddha.

“We want to create the flavour of that language as it was spoken 600 years before Christ. This was a decision that was specifically taken because we felt that there was no point in making a film in a language that they did not speak,” he said. The film would be subtitled in English and other languages. “Today he (Buddha) is very important to the world. I think today it is very important to make a film about the Buddha,” Benegal said.

Speaking on India’s famed Mumbai-based Hindi film industry, Benegal said, “I must disabuse you of this particular notion that Bollywood cinema is Indian cinema. Bollywood really describes Hindi cinema, the pan Indian film that travels all over the country, and generally all over the world.” “(However), “in the (Hindi) film songs you have some of the finest lyrics and some of the greatest poetry in Hindi and Urdu.” Some of India’s greatest poets wrote mainly for Hindi popular films “because that was the only way they could get their poetry across to the people of the country”.