Film-maker Shyam Benegal wanted to make "Manthan" ("churning of the milk ocean", in Hindu mythology) a story based on Amul, but lacked funds. Kurien got his half a million member-farmers to contribute a token two rupees each for the making of the movie. It struck a chord with the audience when it was released in Gujarat in 1976. Truckloads of farmers came to see "their film", making it a success at the box office, emboldening distributors to release it before audiences nationwide. It was critically acclaimed and went on to win national awards the following year, was later shown on national television and was sent for Oscar. An anti-climax starts building up towards the last fifteen minutes of the movie where, once external agents have come to a village, overcome vested interests, brought villagers together to set up a dairy cooperative and then withdrawn, only to have the village go back to its old ways, the defining moment of the film comes in the last couple of minutes, which captures the essence of Kurien's work, and realisation takes hold among a skeptical gathering when an unwearied villager (played by Naseeruddin Shah) tells them, "Arre, kyun nahi chalegi! Hum sab milke chalayenge isko. Kya un logon ki hai yeh! Sisoti aapdi chhe! Aapdi banaayi!" (And how shall it run! Heck, we will run it. All of us together. No need anyone else! The cooperative society belongs to us, made by us!) The movie's success led Kurien to another idea. A vet, a milk technician and a fodder specialist, who could explain the value of cross-breeding of milch cattle, as was shown in the film, would tour other parts of the country in real life along with the film's prints, to woo farmers to form cooperatives of their own. UNDP would use the movie to start similar cooperatives in Latin America. and show it in Africa. Kurien's support was crucial in making, the 'Amul girl' ad campaign (advertising with a larger public message), one of the longest running for decades now, and "Surabhi", a TV series on Indian culture, which used to fetch millions of postcards from viewers, weekly, one of the longest running on national television. In 2013, Amar Chitra Katha brought out the comic book "Verghese Kurien: The Man with the Billion Litre idea".