Shama Zaidi

Shama Zaidi (born 25 September 1938) is an Indian screenplay writer, costume designer, art director, theatre person, art critic, and documentary film maker. She is married to director M. S. Sathyu. Shama Zaidi Was Honored with Lifetime Achievement Award at ICA - International Cultural Artifact Film Festival in 2021.

Background Shama Zaidi is the daughter of Bashir Hussain Zaidi, a politician and educationist, and his wife Qudsia Zaidi. Her mother Qudsia was an associate of Habib Tanvir, the communist ideologue and theatre personality. Shama was the only daughter of the couple and she has two brothers. Both her parents were closely associated with the "progressive" communist movement in India, and Shama grew up in a strongly left-wing environment. She was educated at Woodstock School, Mussoorie, and then at Miranda House, New Delhi. She has a bachelor's degree in English from Delhi University, and a diploma in stage design from the Slade School of Art, London. She is praised for her excellent screen writing in T.V serial "Bharat Ek Khoj".

Career

Journalism Art critic for The Statesman, The Patriot and Shankar's Weekly, New Delhi. Written numerous articles on film, theatre, and television for Cinema Vision, Cinema in India, etc., and other journals and newspapers.

Theatre Zaidi became interested in costume design while in school at Woodstock, Mussoorie, which had extensive theatre activities. Also due to the influence of her mother Qudsia Zaidi, who started the Hindustani Theatre in the late 1950s with Habib Tanvir and other friends. In her college days at Miranda House she started helping out with the stage productions there, apart from taking an active interest in Hindustani Theatre.

After her B.A., Shama went to Slade School of Art, London, for a one-year course in stage and costume design. She then worked in Germany at the Frankfurt Municipal Theatre as an apprentice and for some time as an observer in the Berliner Ensemble. (Apprentice in stage, film and TV design to Herr Hein Heckroth, Frankfurt am Main, West Germany. Herr Heckroth was the designer of Red Shoes Hoffman's Tales, etc.)

She returned to Delhi in 1961 and designed costumes for Hindustani Theatre before shifting to Bombay in 1965 where she worked as Writer, Designer, Performer and Director for Indian People's Theatre Association (IPTA), Mumbai. Since 1980 she has designed more for films and television than theatre.

She worked as a writer, director, costume designer or art director for the following stage productions –

Stage productions Chou En-lai, a historical costume pageant at Lodi Gardens, New Delhi

Hindustani Theatre Shakuntala (1958) – Costume Design Mitti ki Gaadi (1958)- Costume Design & Artiste Khalid Ki Khala (1958)- Costume Design & Artiste Mudrarakshas (1962) – Direction & Costume Design Sufaid Kundali (1963) – Costume Design & Artiste Mera Naam Trufaldeen (1964)- Adaptation & Costume Design

Indian People's Theatre Association, Mumbai

She had been associated with the IPTA's Inter collegiate Drama Competition since 1972 as a jury member.

Translated/adapted over a dozen plays into Hindustani from various languages.

Filmography She has written scripts/dialogues for documentaries and feature films with Satyajit Ray, Shyam Benegal, M. S. Sathyu and others. She has also worked as Costume Designer and Art Director.

Charandas Chor (1975) (The Thief Charandas) Direction Shyam Benegal; Screenplay Shama Zaidi Based on Habib Tanvir's retelling of a famous Rajasthani folk tale. Songs were by Habib Tanvir and most of the dialogues were improvised by the folk artistes.

Garm Hava (Hot Winds) 1974 / Colour / 136min / Urdu Direction M S Sathyu; Screenplay Shama Zaidi & Kaifi Azmi; Costume Design Shama Zaidi Based on a short story by Ismat Chugtai, which she expanded into a film treatment. Filmfare Award for Best Screenplay (shared with Kaifi Azmi).

Manthan (The Churning) 1976 / Colour / 134min / Hindi Direction Shyam Benegal; Art direction Shama Zaidi

Shatranj Ke Khilari शतरंज के खिलाड़ी (Chess Players) 1977 / Hindi Direction Satyajit Ray; Costume Design Shama Zaidi Also assisted Ray with research on the background material and translated dialogues with Javed Siddiqi for the Indian characters in Urdu.

Kanneshwara Rama (The Legendary Outlaw) 1977 / Colour / 137min / Kannada & Hindi Direction M S Sathyu; Script Shama Zaidi Based on the exploits of a legendary dacoit of the Malnad region in Karnataka.

Bhumika (The Role) 1977 / Colour / 142min / Hindi Direction Shyam Benegal; Art direction Shama Zaidi Based on the biography of Hansa Wadkar, a star of the Marathi folk theatre and cinema of the 1940s.

Umrao Jaan (The Courtesan) Colour / Hindi Direction Muzaffar Ali; Script Shama Zaidi & Javed Siddiqi Based on a 19th-century Urdu novel.

Chakra (The Wheel) 1980 / Colour / 140min / Hindi Direction Robin (Rabindra) Dharmraja; Script & Dialogues Shama Zaidi & Javed Siddiqi Based on the novel by Jaywant Dalvi.

Bara/Sookha (Famine) 1981 / Colour / 140min / Kannada & Hindi Direction M S Sathyu; Screenplay & Dialogues Shama Zaidi & Javed Siddiqi Based on a short novel by U R Ananthamurthy.

Aarohan (The Ascent) 1982 Direction Shyam Benegal; Script Shama Zaidi Based on a famous land dispute case.

Mandi (The Marketplace) 1983 / Colour / 160min / Hindi Direction Shyam Benegal; Script & Screenplay Shama Zaidi, Shyam Benegal & Satyadev Dubey

Kahan Kahan Se Guzar Gaya (The Paths I Have Trod) 1985 / Colour / Hindi Direction M S Sathyu; Original Screenplay Shama Zaidi

Susman (The Essence) 1986 / Colour / 140min / Hindi Direction Shyam Benegal; Screenplay Shama Zaidi Original screenplay on the Ikat handloom weavers of Andhra.

Trikaal (Past, Present, Future) 1986 Direction Shyam Benegal; Screenplay Shama Zaidi & Shyam Benegal Based on an idea by Shyam Benegal.

Antarnaad (The Inner Voice) 1993 Direction Shyam Benegal; Screenplay Shama Zaidi & Sunil Shanbag An original screenplay based on the Swadhyaya socio-religious movement founded by Pandurang Shastri Athavale.

Suraj Ka Satvan Ghoda (The Seventh Horse of the Sun) 1994 Direction Shyam Benegal; Screenplay Shama Zaidi A puzzle screenplay based on the novel by Dharamvir Bharati.

Galige 1994 Direction M. S. Sathyu; Screenplay S. Ramaswamy, Shama Zaidi & Satish Sehgal

Mammo 1995 Direction Shyam Benegal; Screenplay Shama Zaidi & Khalid Mohamed

The Making of the Mahatma 1996 Direction Shyam Benegal; Script Shama Zaidi, Shyam Benegal & Fatima Meer An Indo-South African co production on Mahatma Gandhi's life in South Africa.

Sardari Begum 1997 / Colour / 123min / Urdu Direction Shyam Benegal; Screenplay Shama Zaidi & Khalid Mohamed

Nishant Art direction Shama Zaidi

Mrigtrishna Costume Design Shama Zaidi

Haribhari 2000 / Colour / Hindi Direction Shyam Benegal; Script & Dialogues Shama Zaidi A film on women's empowerment made for the Ministry of Family Welfare.

Zubeidaa 2001/ Colour / Hindi Direction Shyam Benegal; Additional screenplay and dialogues Shama Zaidi

Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose: The Forgotten Hero 2002-04/ Colour/Hindi-English Direction Shyam Benegal; Script and Dialogues Shama Zaidi & Atul Tiwari A film on the last years of Subhas Chandra Bose for Sahara Entertainment

Chamki Chameli 2005-2006/ Colour/ Hindi Direction Shyam Benegal; Screenplay and dialogues Shama Zaidi & Atul Tiwari A film inspired by the 19th-century novella "Carmen" by Prosper Mérimée

Mujib: The Making of a Nation 2019-22/ Colour/Bengali Direction Shyam Benegal; Script and Dialogues Shama Zaidi & Atul Tiwari A film on the life of Bangabandhu

Short films