Boong” director
Lakshmipriya wins hearts
Director Lakshmipriya Devi who won a BAFTA for her debut film has been winning hearts in her home country for using the global stage to speak about peace and forgiveness.
Lakshmipriya Devi’s Boong – a Manipuri-language coming-of-age film – won the Best Children’s & Family Film award on Sunday, beating high-profile international contenders such as Zootopia 2, Lilo & Stitch and the French sci-fi film Arco. It is the first Indian film to win a Bafta in this category.
The Bafta win and Devi’s acceptance speech brought the spotlight on both the film and her troubled homeland – the north-eastern Indian state of Manipur where ethnic tensions and violence have left more than 260 people dead and tens of thousands displaced since the summer of 2023.
Boong wrapped up filming before the ethnic conflict began. But the recognition comes as Manipur still grapples with its aftermath.
Accepting the award from Paddington Bear, Devi described Boong as being “rooted in a place that’s very troubled, very much ignored and very under-represented in India – my homeland, Manipur”.
The film, centred on a schoolboy’s search for his missing father, has got accolades at international film festivals and glowing reviews from critics, but not much mainstream attention in India.
That is partly because smaller independent films often get limited distribution in Indian cinemas. Films from northeastern states such as Manipur face more hurdles because of a smaller domestic market and limited integration into the country’s mainstream Hindi-language film industry.
News Edit KV Raman
