Naseeruddin Shah, Prateik Babbar, Amul MD Jayen Mehta grace Cannes red carpet for ‘Manthan’ screening

Cannes [France], May 18 (ANI): Veteran actors Naseeruddin Shah, Ratna Pathak Shah, Prateik Babbar, Dr Verghese Kurien’s daughter Nirmala Kurien, and Amul MD Jayen Mehta graced the red carpet during the screening of ‘Manthan’ at Cannes Film Festival 2024.

Amul India took to official handle of Instagram to share the glimpses of the mega event.

The caption reads, “Manthan” team of Naseeruddin Shah, Ratna Pathak Shah, Prateik Babbar, Ms Nirmala Kurien, @filmheritagefoundation team, & Shri Jayen_Mehta, MD, Amul, representing 3.6 million farmer producers of the film at @festivaldecannes#ManthanAtCannes”

Shyam Benegal’s classic Manthan screened during a prestigious gala on Friday at Salle Bunuel.

‘Manthan’, which starred late actor Smita Patil, is the only Indian film to be selected under the Cannes Classic section of the festival this year. The film also featured Naseeruddin Shah, Girish Karnad, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Mohan Agashe, Anant Nag, and Amrish Puri among others.

The film, based on the pioneering milk cooperative movement of Dr Verghese Kurien — the father of the White Revolution in India, was produced by five lakh dairy farmers of the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), which markets its products under the Amul brand.

The Gujarat-set movie was the first crowd-funded Indian film which was entirely crowdfunded by 500,000 farmers who donated Rs2 each. Kurien, along with Vijay Tendulkar, had penned down the script for the movie.

Manthan 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 to the 1976 Academy Awards in the Best Foreign Language Film category.

The premiere of the restored version of the film at Cannes attended by Naseeruddin Shah, the family of the late Smita Patil, the producers of the film and Film Heritage Foundation’s Shivendra Singh Dungarpur.

About the film’s screening at the Cannes, Shyam Benegal earlier said, “I was absolutely delighted when Shivendra told me that Film Heritage Foundation was going to restore “Manthan” in collaboration with the Gujarat Milk Marketing Federation Ltd. Manthan is a film that is very close to my heart as it was funded by 500,000 farmers and was instrumental in the growth of an extraordinary cooperative movement that was aimed at breaking the shackles of economic inequality and caste discrimination whilst empowering the farmers.”

Cannes Film Festival 2024 opened on May 14 and will go on till May 25.

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