The Edge
English, August, Dev Benegal's first full-length directorial venture, was dubbed by critics as the "first modern Indian film in English". It was way more than that. Four years ago, English, August, a satire on the Indian bureaucracy, became the first small-budget independent film to savour commercial success, making mainstream distributors sit up.

Dev, who believes in cutting edge, cut his teeth assisting Shyam Benegal. In 1985 he began independently as a documentary filmmaker and produced several award winning works. Bridging the gap between art house products and commercial films, he leads the new breed of directors projecting contemporary urban themes. "There is a lot of change going on and I'd like to address it up front," he says. Split Wide Open, his next film-set in the tv industry in Mumbai and is about sub-versive sexuality in modern India-has done the rounds of film festivals abroad. He's on next with Ravan and Eddie, a trilingual in English, Marathi and Portuguese, and Cuckold, both based on books by Kiran Nagarkar. "Dev represents a metropolitan sensibility," says Shyam Benegal, "that's both Indian and transnational." He's welcome.