PANAJI
One of the finest film editors of India and the son of Goa, Waman Bhonsle, expired on April 26 at his residence in Mumbai due to age-related reasons. He was 89. He is survived by his wife, a son and three daughters. A recipient of the first ever National Film Award instituted by the government of India in 1978, Bhonsle who was called the ‘Pride of India’, hailed from Pomburpa in Bardez. His nephew Dinesh Bhonsle, a Goan filmmaker, briefed, “He was not keeping well since the lockdown last year, due to age-related ailments.”
Bhonsle edited 231 films in his 47-year-long career in the Indian film industry beginning from 1952 as an apprentice with the film editor D N Pai at Himanshu Roy’s studio ‘Bombay Talkies’. Bhonsle edited every film of Gulzar since ‘Mere Apne’ and made a debut as an independent editor with Raj Khosla’s ‘Do Raaste’ in 1967. He voluntarily retired at the age of 67 but continued to guide the budding film-editors. The last film he edited was a Marathi film by Amol Palekar ‘Kairee’ in 1999. Besides Hindi, Bhonsle edited films in Marathi, Bengali and Haryanvi apart from few South Indian films. Born on February 19, 1932 as a third child to Nagesh and Satyavati Bhonsle, Waman moved to Mumbai after passing out of school.
