Amitabh Bachchan on Thursday expressed his admiration for the Film Heritage Foundation (FHF) for its commitment to preserving India’s cinematic history after Shyam Benegal’s iconic 1976 film Manthan, which was recently restored by FHF, was selected for screening at the 77th Cannes Film Festival.

As per the Cannes Film Festival website, Manthan will be screened in the Cannes Classics category, a segment established two decades ago to showcase retrospectives, restored editions and documentaries.

“So proud that the 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,” Bachchan wrote on social media.

With Manthan’s selection for the Cannes Film Festival this year, this is the third consecutive year that a film restored by the foundation will be making its way to the Cannes stage. Previously, FHF presented a restored version of G Aravindan’s Malayalam film Thampu (1978) at Cannes Classics in 2022, followed by Ishanou directed by Manipuri filmmaker Aribam Syam Sharma in 2023.

FHF founder-director Shivendra Singh Dungarpur expressed his pride in the Foundation's achievement. “Unbelievable Third year in a row at Cannes Film Festival …Film Heritage Foundation is proud to bring the Restoration of Shyam Benegal’s milestone film “Manthan”produced by 500,000 farmers who gave rupees 2 to produce this film…I wish Smita Patil was here to see this…” wrote the filmmaker-archivist on X.

Co-written by Benegal and playwright Vijay Tendulkar, Manthan is set in Gujarat and is hailed as India's first crowd-funded film. It received critical acclaim, winning two National Film Awards in 1977 for Best Feature Film in Hindi and Best Screenplay for Tendulkar. Additionally, it represented India at the 1976 Academy Awards in the Best Foreign Language Film category.

In addition to Manthan, Indian cinema will be represented at Cannes 2024 by filmmaker Payal Kapadia's All We Imagine As Light in the Competition section, contending for the coveted Palme d’Or, and Sunflowers Were the First Ones to Know, a short film by students from the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), in the La Cinef Competitive section.

Additionally, Sandhya Suri's film Santosh, starring Shahana Goswami and Sanjay Bishnoi, has secured a spot in the Un Certain Regard section of the festival.

Karan Kandhari's inaugural feature Sister Midnight will premiere at the Quinzaine des Cinéastes (Directors' Fortnight). Additionally, Maisam Ali's In Retreat has been chosen for the Acid section of the Cannes Film Festival.

Moreover, Bulgarian director Konstantin Bojanov's movie The Shameless, featuring Mita Vashisht, Tanmay Dhanania, Auroshikha Dey and Rohit Kokate, is scheduled for screening in the Un Certain Regard category as well.

The 77th Cannes Film Festival is scheduled to commence on May 14 and will run till May 25.