Content marketing before its time

The 1976 film Manthan, based on the origin of the Gujarat Co-operative Milk Federation Marketing (GCMMF-Amul Dairy), was recently in the news.

- AMBI PARAMESWARAN

(Business Standard, June 7, 2024). Its wonderfully restored version received rave reviews at Cannes and had a select run in Indian movie halls. Social media buzzed about the quality of the restoration and the movie's enduring magic.

This renewed interest in Manthan made me reflect on how prophetic Verghese Kurien and the Amul team were to commission a fullfledged movie on their origin. Yes, the movie did not use the names of real people, but there was no doubt that it was about how Amul came to be.

There aren't very many movies that capture a company's origin or a founder's struggles. In Hollywood, recent examples include The Founder (Ray Kroc/McDonald's), The Social Network (Mark Zuckerberg/Facebook), and The Aviator (Howard Hughes/TWA). In India, there's Guru (rumoured to be a biopic of Dhirubhai Ambani), Soorarai Pottru (Captain Gopinath/Air Deccan), Vijayanand (Vijayanand Road Lines), and the documentary Pralhad (Finolex). The last two were produced by the companies themselves, while the others were by mainstream production companies, with or without permission.

There are scores of movies built around semifictional business stories; even HBO's acclaimed series Succession is loosely based on a media tycoon's life.

Why is this relevant for us marketers, and what lessons can we learn from an effort such as Manthan?