'We pray for peace': Indian filmmaker from troubled state who won a Bafta

An Indian director 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.

At its heart, Boong follows a mischievous young boy, Brojendro "Boong" Singh, played by Gugun Kipgen, who lives with his mother in Manipur's capital city, Imphal. His father, who left home to run a furniture shop in Moreh, a border town near Myanmar, has stopped contacting the family.

Refusing to believe rumours of his father's death, Boong decides to bring him home as a "gift" for his mother. With the help of his best friend Raju, he embarks on a journey in search of answers.

Devi told the Indian Express newspaper in 2024 that she wanted her film to begin like a grandmother's story: "Once upon a time, there was a boy named Boong."

While the feature unfolds through a child's eyes, it also touches upon weighty issues including long-standing ethnic tensions, migration, political suspicion and militarisation of the state, which shares a border with Myanmar, over the years.

The film feels particularly poignant when viewed with the knowledge of the conflict which came after it was shot. In May 2023, violence erupted between the Meitei majority and Kuki-Zo communities over issues including identity, land and political representation.

Since then, the communities have largely remained segregated even as political negotiations and rehabilitation efforts continue.

It was against this backdrop that Devi used the Bafta stage to call for peace on Sunday.

"We pray that all the internally displaced children, including the child actors in the film, regain their joy, their innocence, and their dreams once again," she said.

"We pray that no conflict is ever formidable enough to destroy the one super power that all of us have as human beings - that is forgiveness," she added.

Gugun Kipgen, 12, who plays Boong, is from the Kuki-Zo community and portrays a Meitei character in the movie.

And Boong's best friend Raju is from the Marwari community, which originates in present-day western Rajasthan state and has migrated across large parts of South Asia. They are often perceived as "mainlanders" or outsiders in the northeast.

A review in The Hollywood Reporter India noted that Boong "trusts its personal story to convey the history of a place without exoticising it", and that it "forces us to remember that Boong and his fellow characters are humans before they're Manipuri, Hindu, invisibilised or Indian".

Boong was produced by Excel Entertainment - an established Mumbai production company co-founded by Bollywood actor Farhan Akhtar and producer Ritesh Sidhwani - which gave it a fillip as it travelled the international festival circuit.

Speaking to Deadline after the win, Akhtar said he had known Devi "for close to 20 years" and that it felt right to support Boong which is set in a region of India "where [there are] very few films that we get to watch".

Boong, which had a limited release in Indian cinemas in September last year, premiered in the Discovery section of the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival and was later screened at the Warsaw International Film Festival, the International Film Festival of India, the MAMI Mumbai Film Festival and the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne.

Its success has brought visibility to under-represented stories from India's northeast and congratulations poured in for the film's team on Monday.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi called it "a moment of immense joy, especially for Manipur" and said the film highlighted "the immense creative talent in our nation".

West Bengal state Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee wrote on X that the film "has created history" and added that its cast and crew "have made the whole nation proud".

Manipur's new Chief Minister Yumnam Khemchand Singh, who took oath earlier this month, called the win a moment of pride for the state and the country.

"Rooted in the soil of Manipur, Boong is more than a film - it is a tribute to a homeland that remains resilient despite hardship. In [Devi's] powerful words, she prayed for peace to return to Manipur and for internally displaced children - including the young actors of the film - to regain their joy, innocence and dreams.

"Her message was clear and moving: no conflict should ever overpower humanity's greatest strength - forgiveness," the official account of the government of Manipur wrote on X.

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