Shyam Benegal (born 14 December 1934, Hyderabad) is a prolific Indian director and screenwriter. With his first four feature films Ankur (1973), Nishant (1975), Manthan (1976) and Bhumika (1977) he created a new genre, which has now come to be called the "middle cinema" in India. He has expressed dislike of the term, preferring his work to be called New or Alternate cinema.
He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1976 and the Padma Bhushan in 1991. On 8 August 2007, Benegal was awarded the highest award in Indian cinema for lifetime achievement, the Dadasaheb Phalke Award for the year 2005. He has won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi seven times.
Shyam Benegal, was born in a Konkani Chitrapur Saraswat Brahmin family on 14 December 1934 in Trimulgherry,Secunderabad then a British Cantonment, and now a twin city of the state capital, Hyderabad. It was here, at age twelve that he made his first film, on a camera given to him by his photographer father Sridhar B. Benegal. He received an M.A. in Economics, from Nizam College, Osmania University, Hyderabad. There he formed the Hyderabad Film Society.
Anant Nagarkatte (born September 4, 1948) popularly known as Anant Nag is an actor and politician from Karnataka, India. He is considered to be one of the all time greatest actors in the Kannada film industry with a vast number of commercially successful movies.[citation needed] As a result, he is popularly known as an actor with no-failures, by critics.[citation needed] In addition to Kannada movies, he has acted in Marathi, Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu and Hindi movies. He has also acted in Malgudi Days, directed by his younger brother Shankar Nag based on the stories by R.K.Narayan. His work was much appreciated by critics at that time. He is fluent in Kannada, Konkani, Marathi, Hindi and with a good understanding of Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam. The versatile natural acting coupled with the style of speaking (accent of southern Kannada with a tint of coastal touch) made him one of the most successful actors in Kannada cinema.
Anant Nag, one of the greatest Indian actors, was born in Konkani Saraswat Brahmin family of Anandi and Sadanand Nagarkatte. He had his early education under the aegis of Ananda Ashrama in Dakshina Kannada district and Chitrapura matha in Uttara Kannada. He was sent to Mumbai for onward education and got involved with amateur Marathi theatre for eight years. He started out doing amateur theatre in Marathi and Kannada.
Rajesh Khanna pronunciation (help·info); (born Jatin Khanna on 29 December 1942) is an Indian actor of Hindi films, and has been Hindi film producer and an Indian politician.
He appeared in 163 films of which 106 had him as the solo lead hero and 22 were two hero projects. He won three Filmfare Best Actor Awards and was nominated for the same fourteen times. He received the maximum BFJA Awards for Best Actor (Hindi) – four times and nominated 25 times. He was awarded the Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005. Khanna is referred to as the "First Superstar" of Hindi cinema. He made his debut in 1966 with Aakhri Khat and rose to prominence with his performances in films like Raaz, Baharon Ke Sapne, Ittefaq and Aradhana.
Khanna was born in Amritsar on 29 December 1942. He was adopted and raised by foster parents who were relatives of his biological parents. Khanna lived in Thakurdwar near Girgaon. Khanna attended St. Sebastian’s Goan High School in Girgaum, along with his friend Ravi Kapoor, who later took the stage name Jeetendra. Their mothers were friends. Khanna gradually started taking interest in theatre and did a of stage and theater plays in his school and college days and won many prizes in the inter college drama competitions. Khanna became a rare newcomer who struggled in his own MG sports car to get work in theatre and films in the early sixties. Both friends later studied in Kishinchand Chellaram College(KC). When Jeetendra went for his first film audition, it was Khanna who tutored him. Khanna's uncle changed Khanna's first name to Rajesh when Khanna decided to join films. His friends and his wife call him Kaka.