Shree Narayan Singh’s upcoming film will be based on Verghese Kurien’s famed dairy development programme of 1970, Operation Flood, Mumbai Mirror reported.
Co-produced by Singh and Ekta Kapoor’s Balaji Motion Pictures, the film has also reportedly acquired the rights for Kurien’s autobiography I Too Had a Dream (2005). Kurien was widely credited with the programme that made India the largest milk producer in the world by 1998.
“Dr Verghese Kurien was a visionary businessman, philanthropist and a great human,” Singh told Mumbai Mirror in an interview. “He wanted to study nuclear engineering but ended up in the dairy industry.” Singh, who made his debut with the Akshay Kumar starrer Toilet Ek Prem Katha (2017), also told the tabloid that the film will also depict Kurien’s role in female empowerment.
“The story of Dr Verghese Kurien is not only engaging but extremely inspiring. I am delighted to tell the story of a true visionary,” Ekta Kapoor told the tabloid.
Shyam Benegal’s acclaimed film Manthan (1976) was the first movie to dramatise Kurien’s milk cooperative movement. Starring Girish Karnad, Smita Patil and Naseeruddin Shah, Manthan was crowd-funded by over 500,000 farmers in Gujarat.