Jena had entered the Indian Film Industry in the 1980s, when Industry was going through a transition and the New Wave Cinema or Serious Cinema (or Art Cinema) which had flourished through the 50s and 60s (under the aegis of Satyajit Ray and Mrinal Sen and Shyam Benegal) was floundering and dying in the 80s.
His interest in film making went back to 1977, when on a vacation in his village he was introduced to celebrated director of the “art cinema genre,” Shyam Benegal.
In 2001, he served on the jury of Film South Asia '01, the festival of South Asian documentaries, along with Firdous Azim and Shyam Benegal.
She also had a son from her first marriage, Khalid Mohamed, a film critic, who wrote the screenplay for the film Zubeidaa (2001), directed by Shyam Benegal, loosely based on her life.
Shyam Benegal | Shyam Ramsay | Shyam Vatika | Shyam Selvadurai | Dev Benegal | Swami Shyam | Shyam Prasad Reddy | Shyam Narayan Pandey | Anupam Shyam |
The White Revolution inspired the notable Indian film-maker Shyam Benegal to base his film Manthan (1976) on it.
Kalpana Lajmi is daughter of painter Lalita Lajmi and niece of filmmaker Guru Dutt, debuted as an assistant director under the veteran film director Shyam Benegal who was also her relative of the Padukone family.
On the entertainment side, she has covered Indian movie directors Mira Nair, Shyam Benegal, Govind Nihalani and other notables such as Bollywood's activist and intellectual actress Shabana Azmi, New York based Jazz musicians Vijay Iyer and Rudresh Mahanthappa, theatre actress and celebrity chef Madhur Jaffrey, writer Gita Mehta and upcoming music director A R Rehana (sister of A R Rahman), among others.
It is a significant work of the Indian Parallel Cinema movement which started during the 1970s with filmmakers Mani Kaul and Shyam Benegal.
His roles in Shyam Benegal’s TV series Bharat Ek Khoj and Jabbar Patel’s film Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar won him further laurels.
The book became the basis of the 53-episode Indian television series Bharat Ek Khoj (1988), directed by Shyam Benegal, first broadcast in 1988 on state-run Doordarshan channel.
She also played lead roles in TV serials and films such as The Sword of Tipu Sultan by Sanjay Khan, Naseem by Saeed Akhtar Mirza, Bharat Ek Khoj by Shyam Benegal and Love You Hamesha by Kailash Surendranath.
The film is by noted Parallel cinema director, Shyam Benegal, returns to comedy after his film, Charandas Chor (1975).