Naseeruddin featured as Bhola in Manthan

There were so many friends who were in the film: Shah

It was a moving experience: Shah

Manthan directed by Shyam Benegal was premiered in the 77th Cannes Film Festival. Bollywood actor Naseeruddin Shah who had featured in the film in the role of Bhola attended the screening and was overcome by emotions. “It felt unreal to me. I have always seen the red carpet ceremony either on video or in photographs. I have seen all these lovely ladies parading themselves in their gorgeous costumes. I never dreamt I’d be a part of that one day. So, my wife and I decided to keep it as simple as possible. And, of course, it was a terribly emotional experience. Because there were so many friends who were in the film. Girish was a friend and my teacher. He was the director of FTII. Smita was a dear friend and so was Amrish. None of them are there any longer,” he said in an interaction with Brut India. 

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Manthan was a fictionalised account of the setting up of milk cooperatives across India. It was a crowd sourced film which had some stellar figures in its ensemble cast such as Smita Patil, Girish Karnad and Amrish Puri. “So many faces which had sort of slipped one’s memory. To see all those people again who used to, who were almost everybody in the unit, got dragged in… I felt very proud, prouder of this film than I have ever felt. I’ve always treasured this film very dearly to my heart. So it was a moving experience, I could hardly hold back the tears. And I find that the film has really stood the test of time,” Naseeruddin added.