When 5 lakh milk farmers of Gujarat came together to fund a film about their lives

In the age of corporate-backed blockbusters and big-scale projects mounted on massive budgets, it almost feels unthinkable today that a full length feature film could be crowdfunded by a co-operative society somewhere from a small village in India. However, that’s exactly what happened around 47 years ago with Shyam Benegal’s social drama Manthan. To find Shyam Benegal’s film about how the Amul co-operation began, over 5 lakh milk farmers came together and decided to fund the project themselves.

Manthan was initially pitched as a documentary

It all began when emerging filmmaker Shyam Benegal, who had just made his film debut with the 1974 release Ankur, approached Dr. Verghese Kurien, the man who quietly led the white revolution in India in the 60s by founding the Amul brand. Benegal at first expressed his desire to make a documentary on Kurien’s accomplishments in paving path for the white revolution.

However, after discussing the subject further and getting to know the entire Amul movement from close quarters, Benegal decided to modify his project and make a feature drama film instead, while still borrowing real life events from Kurien’s experiences in Gujarat. 
Now the real challenge faced Benegal - arranging enough funds to make a feature film. After a few discussions, Benegal told Kurien that he needed anywhere between 10-12 lakhs to make the film.

Kurien approached 5 lakh farmers to fund Benegal’s film

This is when Kurien approached the farmers with a unique proposition - He suggested that for one day, every farmer sell their milk for 6 Rs. instead of 8 Rs., hence contributing 2 rupees each towards the production of Benegal’s film. And that’s how 5 lakh farmers of Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Limited came up with the funds required to produce Manthan.

Therefore, the opening credits of Manthan begins with the card ‘5 lakh farmers of Gujarat present,’ because that’s exactly what happened - Manthan was funded by 5 lakh milk farmers, who contributed 2 rupees each towards the film.

Manthan not only earned great critical acclaimed upon its release, but also won 2 National Awards the next year, for Best Screenplay and Best Feature Film. But more importantly, with Manthan encouraged many other rising filmmakers to make films about the pressing issues of the nation, that were based in their social realities and had a story that urgently needed to be told to the rest of the world.