India, Dec. 24 -- Christmas was a few days away when Shyam Sundar Benegal - who became popular as Shyam Benegal - was born in Hyderabad. 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 make-up 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. Make-up 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. Designing masks and make-up of over 20 actors who went on stage for the play was a massive task that Benegal had taken upon himself. Ravi Dayal had assisted him with the make-up part. Hamlet, as the Theatre Group's booklet mentions, had a cast that featured Zulfikar 'Zul' Velani (as Hamlet, the son of the late King of Denmark), Gerson da Cunha (as Claudius, brother of the late King), Usha Amin (as Gertrude, the widow of the late King), Kersy Katrak (as Polonius, the lord chamberlain), Yasmin Mody (as Ophelia, Polonius's daughter), among others. While researching for his book on the German filmmaker, Paul Zils, Velani often reminisced to me about his playing the role of Hamlet in the play and how Benegal would masterly apply make-up to his face. Benegal had not yet started making feature films. He had made only a short film in Gujarati, Gher Betha Ganga (Ganges at the Doorstep), in 1962. He was still working as a copywriter. His first feature film, Ankur, would only come in 1973. Benegal also worked as a make-up artist on Edward Albee's The Zoo Story, another Theatre Group production, in which Cavas Amroliwala played Peter and Aziz Padamsee played Jerry. Alyque Padamsee became the father and Pearl Padamsee, the nurse. Another play, about Bombay, called Asylum was performed on August 13 and 16, 1966, at the Tejpal Theatre. Written by Erna J Vatchaghandy, the play had actors such as Yasmin Mody (Gita "Minnie" Dyer), Dina Pathak (Shantiben Shah, Gita's mother), and Roger CB Pereira (Michael Dyer, her husband) on stage. The play had a prologue and two acts with two scenes. The backstage artists included Benegal, who had also designed the make-up for the play. Yet another significant production was The Persecution and Assassination of Marat, a true-story-based play about human suffering, class struggle, and mental illness, as depicted in the play itself and the play-within-play performed by the inmates of the asylum, Charenton. This Peter Weiss play was performed by the Theatre Group at St. Xavier's College in January 1969. It was Benegal again who had lent his make-up talent to the faces of the 24 main artistes and as many extras on stage, allowing them to bring their characters to life every which way. Alyque Padamsee directed an Arthur Miller play, The Crucible, performed on April, 16, 20 and 21, 1964, at Tejpal Theatre. Benegal designed and executed make-up for as many as 15 on-stage artistes. On September 4-6, 1963, Alyque Padamsee presented Theatre Group's An Evening off-Broadway at the USIS Auditorium in Bombay, which showcased the new trends in American theatre. Among the backstage artists was Benegal, shouldering the responsibility of making up faces of the actors on stage. The programme design was done by Micky Patel. No wonder, with such backstage expertise acquired in Bombay's English theatre of the 1960s, Benegal could direct his magnum opus, Bhumika (The Role), adapting Marathi actor Hansa Wadkar's autobiography Santye Aika, with great ease and effectiveness of cinematography. Bhumika starred Smita Patil, and 2025 marks her 70th birth anniversary. Incidentally, the film itself will turn 50 as bells ring in the New Year. It is time, too, for Benegal's natal link to the world of theatre and cinema, as a make-up designer, to be more widely known and appreciated....