India's First Crowdfunded Film Manthan To Be Screened At Cannes 2024

The 2024 Cannes Film Festival will screen the restored version of Shyam Benegal’s 1976 film Manthan. The film, starring Smita Patil, is inspired by the pioneering milk cooperative movement led by Verghese Kurien, known for the White Revolution which made India the world’s largest milk producer and gave birth to the billion-dollar brand Amul.

Apart from the huge success that the film had, it also demonstrated the power of the crowd as it was entirely crowdfunded by 5,00,000 farmers who donated Rs 2 each. Manthan was the first crowdfunded Indian film.

The budget for the film was Rs 10-12 lakh but the producer didn’t have that much money so they started collecting donations from farmers. After the film’s release, farmers flooded to watch the film making it a box office success.

Manthan will be screened in the Cannes Classics section, which commemorates film icons with restored prints and documentaries.

“So proud that Film Heritage Foundation will be at the Cannes Film Festival for the third year in a row with another world premiere of a remarkable restoration – Shyam Benegal’s film “Manthan” that had compelling performances from an exceptional cast including Smita Patil. Just amazing the work that Film Heritage Foundation does to preserve, restore and showcase the best of India’s film heritage to the world”, Amitabh Bachchan tweeted.

As Amitabh Bachchan mentioned, this is the third consecutive year that a film restored by the foundation will be screened at Cannes. Earlier, in 2022, FHF had screened the restored version of G Aravindan’s Malayalam film Thampu (1978) at Cannes Classics, followed by the restoration of Manipuri director Aribam Syam Sharma’s film Ishanou last year in the same segment.

Manthan won two National Film Awards in 1977: for Best Feature Film in Hindi and Best Screenplay for Vijay Tendulkar. It was also India’s official entry to the 1976 Academy Awards in the Best Foreign Language Film category. The title song Mero Gaam Katha Parey, sung by Preeti Sagar, was later used as the soundtrack for Amul’s television advertisements.