Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, Naseeruddin Shah, Ratna Pathak Shah, Team Film and family members, on the red carpet during their arrival for the screening of the film, for the restored version of the film “Manthan” (The Churning) presented as part of Cannes Classics. While posing. “Three Kilometers to the World” (Trei Kilometere pana la Capatul Lumi) in competition at the 77th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France on May 17, 2024. Reuters/Stéphane Mahé | Photo Credit: Stéphane Mahé

Veteran director Shyam Benegal’s “Manthan”, a film financed by 5 lakh farmers of Gujarat 48 years ago, made a triumphant return to the limelight and public consciousness with its screening at the Cannes Film Festival.

A restored version of the 1976 film, inspired by Dr Verghese Kurien’s pioneering milk cooperative movement that turned India into one of the world’s largest milk producers, was screened under the Cannes Classics segment on Friday.

Veteran actor Naseeruddin Shah walked the red carpet at Cannes with wife Ratna Pathak Shah, late co-star Smita Patil’s son Prateik Babbar, Dr Kurien’s daughter Nirmala Kurien and Amul MD Jayne Mehta.

The official said, “The ‘Manthan’ team of Naseeruddin Shah, Ratna Pathak Shah, Prateik Babbar, Ms. Nirmala Kurien, the @FHF_Official team, and Mr. @Jayen_Mehta, MD, Amul, representing the film’s 3.6 million farmer producers at @Festival_Cannes #ManthanAtCannes are doing.” Amul’s X page posted.

Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, founder of the Film Heritage Foundation (FHF), the non-profit organization behind the restored prints, also attended the screening of the film.

“Last night the Film Heritage Foundation returned to the red carpet at Cannes for the third year in a row at the world premiere of our restoration of Shyam Benegal’s landmark film ‘Manthan’ produced by 500,000 dairy farmers at the Cannes Film Festival 2024.” FHF posted on X.

Starring Patil, the film was inspired by the milk cooperative movement of Verghese Kurien, who led ‘Operation Flood’ to transform India from a milk-deficient country into one of the world’s largest milk producers and a billion-dollar brand. Is given credit for making. Amul.

Co-written by Benegal and renowned playwright Vijay Tendulkar, the Gujarat-set “Manthan” was one-of-a-kind as it was entirely bankrolled by 5 lakh farmers, who donated Rs 2 each.

The film won two National Film Awards in 1977: for Best Feature Film in Hindi and for Best Screenplay for Tendulkar. It was also India’s official entry for the 1976 Academy Awards in the Best Foreign Language Film category.

Benegal, who did not attend the premiere due to health reasons, recalled how farmers of Gujarat also made the film a hit by watching it en masse in theatres.

“The farmers who produced the film helped make it a success. Once the film started in Saurashtra, Gujarat, it did brilliantly. It was because of the farmers, they were the original audience of the film. They Meet your family.

“They wanted everyone to see it because they believed it was their film. They would all come riding on bullock carts to watch the film, whether they were from Ahmedabad, Baroda or other places in Gujarat. We did not do any kind of publicity. Didn’t. The film developed its own momentum,” the 89-year-old filmmaker told PTI earlier this week.

“Manthan” is the third consecutive film reinstated by FHF for Cannes, one of the most prestigious film festivals worldwide.

FHF brought the restoration of G Aravindan’s Malayalam film “Thampu” (1978) to Cannes Classics in 2022, followed by the restoration of “Ishaanau” directed by Manipuri writer Aribam Syam Sharma – under the same section last year.

According to the official website of the festival, the restoration of “Manthan” was done using the original 35 mm camera negative preserved at the NFDC-National Film Archives of India, and the sound was digitized from the 35 mm release print preserved at the Film Heritage Foundation.

It was restored to Prasad Corporation Pvt. Ltd. Ltd.’s Post-Studio, Chennai and L’Imagine Retrovita Laboratory, in collaboration with Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd., cinematographer Govind Nihalani and Benegal.