“WE HAD NO MONEY SO SHYAM MADE US WALK DOWN THE PROMENADE IN SARIS”

Shabana Azmi, Smita Patil and Shyam Benegal are legendary names in Indian film industry who are known for mastery in their craft. In a recent twitter post, a picture of the three of them at Cannes Film Festival 1976 for their film Nishant, was shared.

Reminiscing in nostalgia, Shabana tweeted, “We had only 8 USD each survived on the per diem given by the Festival. Shyam had Smita and me walk down the promenade in saris 4 attention. V had no money so Shyam made us walk down d promenade in saris n ask ppl who turned in curiosity to watch our film.it worked house was full”

Nishant had a stellar star cast in the form of Girish Karnad, Amrish Puri, Anant Nag, Naseeruddin Shah and others. It was about the power of the rural elite and the sexual exploitation of women, during feudalism in India.

Nishant won the 1977 National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi and was also selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 1976 Cannes Film Festival. It won the Golden Plaque in Chicago International Film Festival in 1977.

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