Hamlet to Bhumika: Bengal and Bombay’s theatre world

Christmas was a few days away when Shyam Sundar Benegal —who became popular as Shyam Benegal —was born in Hyderabad.

- Amrit Gangar

And it was two days away when he breathed his last, in 2024. Benegal was posthumously honoured last year by the Indian People’s Theatre Association (IPTA) for his humanistic, progressive and socially conscious work, which IPTA held as being in the spirit of its ideals, akin to those of the iconic Urdu/Hindi writer Premchand.

I would like to record a biographical fact about Benegal that perhaps remains largely unknown — a fact that adds to the dimension of his versatility. It is his work in Mumbai's (once Bombay) English theatre as a makeup artist who even designed masks — that is worth knowing. Coincidentally, Benegal’s year of death was also the 60th anniversary of the Theatre Group Bombay performing Shakespeare's Hamlet.

The play was premiered at the Bhulabhai Desai Auditorium on April 22-24, 1964. In this play directed by Alyque Padamsee (1928-2018), Benegal was credited for designing the masks, which were brought to being by Naren Panchal. Makeup material was donated by Lakme, a cosmetic brand owned by Hindustan Unilever (HUL), named after the French opera Lakme, which is the French word for the Goddess Lakshmi, who is known also for her beauty. The advertising company, Lintas, handled the campaigns for the HUL, and Alyque Padamsee and his theatre group belonged to the Lintas stable.