Ratna Pathak Shah upcycles a saree she's worn multiple times for ‘Manthan’ special screening at Cannes

Ratna Pathak Shah with Naseeruddin Shah Pic/AFP

The fourth day at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival saw a French theatre reverberating with the magic of Indian storytelling - courtesy of Shyam Benegal's classic 'Manthan'. Starring the late Smita Patil and actor Naseeruddin Shah, 'Manthan' was inspired by the pioneering milk cooperative movement of Verghese Kurien, who led 'Operation Flood' to transform India from a milk-deficient country to the world's biggest milk producer and is credited for creating the billion-dollar brand 'Amul'.

The screening of 'Manthan' was attended by Naseeruddin Shah, his wife Ratna Pathak Shah, and Prateik Babbar, actor and son of Smita Patil. Naseeruddin kept it classy in a bandhgala suit while Prateik wore a black suit and aced the man bun look with a pair of sunglasses. His outfit was designed by Rohit Gandhi and Rahul Khanna. However, it was style queen Ratna, who set an example on the red carpet. As per reports, she upcycled a lime green saree she'd worn multiple times and paired it with a lavender blouse and jacket.

Also present at the screening were Nirmala Kurien, daughter of the legendary Dr. Verghese Kurien, Father of the White Revolution, Anita Patil Deshmukh and Manya Patil Seth, sisters of Smita Patil, and Dr Jayen Mehta, Managing Director, Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd., the producers of the film.

As the film came to an end, the crowd present in the theatre erupted into big applause and gave a standing ovation to the film.

'Manthan' was restored by the Film Heritage Foundation at Prasad Corporation Pvt. Ltd.'s Post-Studios, Chennai and L'Immagine Ritrovata Laboratory, in association with Gujarat Co-Operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd. (Amul), the cinematographer Govind Nihalani and the director Shyam Benegal.

Speaking about the Cannes premiere of 'Manthan', Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, Director, the Film Heritage Foundation stated, "It was amazing walking the red carpet third time in a row and presenting another restored classic here in Cannes the head of Cannes Classic kept talking about the level of restoration various people came to me to talk about the restoration and said they cannot believe the level of restoration we missed Shyam Benegal as there was standing ovation which lasted for almost 5minutes after the film."

Interestingly, 'Manthan' is also India's first crowdfunded film produced by 500,000 dairy farmers who contributed Rs. 2/- each towards the production of the film. Also, Indian audiences can catch the premiere of the restored film in theatres nationwide on World Milk Day falling on June 1st, 2024. 'Manthan' also starred Amrish Puri, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Girish Karnad and Mohan Agashe.

(With inputs from ANI)