The wondrous journey of ‘Boong’, from Manipur to the BAFTAs and beyond

Lakshmipriya Devi’s Manipuri film Boong is about a young boy’s mission to locate his missing father. Accompanied by his best friend Raju, Boong travels from Imphal all the way to neighbouring Myanmar to find his father, an expedition that puts the boys in considerable peril. Persistence and pluck characterise the movie’s wondrous trajectory.

The 2024 production is back in the news after winning a British Academy of Film and Television Arts award in February in London. The honour – the first for an Indian title – has led to Boong being released in cinemas for a second time across the country, including in Manipur.

At the BAFTAs, Boong was entered in the Best Children’s & Family Film category – a brainwave that Devi attributes to one of the three producers, Excel Entertainment. “We decided to go for it – we had nothing to lose,” Devi told Scroll.

Boong had previously been submitted to the committee that picks India’s official entry for the International Film Oscar, but it lost out to Neeraj Ghaywan’s Homebound. Boong was released in cinemas in September. Where else could the film try its luck?

“Vishal Ramchandani, the CEO of Excel, said, why don’t you take a look at BAFTA?” Devi said. “I found out that there was a children’s category.”

Also produced by Chalkboard Entertainment and Suitable Pictures, Boong was the only Indian film nominated at the BAFTAs. The nomination itself came as a surprise for Devi. An associate director on numerous Bollywood productions, Devi has frequently spoken about approaching her low-budget first feature as if it were her last.

“We were happy about being in the long list, and when the nominations came out, that was the biggest thing for me – it was amazing, completely unexpected,” Devi said. Boong was nominated alongside Lilo & Stitch and the animated films Arco and Zootopia 2.

The pre-BAFTA preparations included understanding the event flow, which the organisers explained over a Zoom meeting. This was followed by a pre-ceremony party for the nominees across categories held at the National Gallery museum in London.

“The party was like a dream – there were such amazing paintings around and I kept looking at them,” Devi recalled. She was a bundle of nerves, she added. “I was in such close proximity to people that I have only ever seen on a big screen. I tried to enjoy myself. I was just soaking it all in.”

On the morning of the event, one of Boong’s producers, Alan McAlex from Suitable Pictures, reminded Devi of another BAFTA requirement: every nominee had to have a winning speech ready.

“He said, you have to write something, but I thought Zootopia 2 or Arco would win,” Devi said. “I was crying, I was so tired by the film’s whole journey, which is how the first words of the speech came about, that the walk to the stage felt like the last few steps to the summit of a mountain.”

Before the winner in her category was announced, Devi sent a message to her crew that said, no matter what happens, whatever the outcome of tonight, nobody can take this away from us.

She says she barely remembers anything after her name was called out. She can only recall seeing four guests in the front rows – the Prince and Princess of Wales, the movie star Leonardo DiCaprio and Hamnet director Chloe Zhao. “I had been dying to meet Chloe Zhao, whenever she speaks she makes so much sense and seems so Zen, just the opposite of me,” Devi said.

Devi’s speech was heartfelt as well as political. She was flanked by her producers and the British actor Arti Shah playing the beloved British icon Paddington Bear.

Devi began with the Manipuri greeting “khurumjari”. She emphasised the significance of her victory for people back home – the film is “rooted in a place which is very troubled, very much ignored and very unrepresented in India”.

Gugun Kipgen, who plays Boong, had to leave Manipur soon after the shoot was completed in 2023. (He now lives with his family in Delhi).

“We pray for peace to return to Manipur,” Devi asserted in her speech. “We pray that all the internally displaced children including the child actors in the film regain their joy and innocence once again. We pray that no conflict is ever formidable enough to destroy the one superpower that all of us have as human beings, which is forgiveness.”

Devi cobbled together her speech from lines that had appeared in her previous speeches, she said. “It was such a beautiful day.”

She was elated at receiving the award from Paddington, since she was a big fan of the books by Michael Bond. The ursine hero is based on Bond’s memories of evacuee children during World War II – a concern for the young victims of conflict that Devi says she shares.

The post-awards party was another rush of blood to the head. But there was something more pressing to tackle. The moment she and her producers got off the stage, her “low-budget director mentality” kicked in, she said.

“I showed the award to the boys and said, it’s so heavy, what will the excess baggage costs be? This low-budget directorness in me was taking the joy out of holding the award.”

Boong has connected with the BAFTA jury as well as other festival audiences because it explores “universal emotions”, Devi stated. Apart from following Boong’s quest, the movie examines the prejudice faced by his single mother and biases among locals against non-Manipuris.

“The mother-son relationship is one factor, also the fact that you want to do something so badly for your parent,” Devi observed. “Boong becomes a sort of protector of his mother. Lots of people have come up to me and said that this story could be set anywhere in the world.”

That said, Boong makes the most sense in Manipur. Although set in 2015, Boong in its child-like way speaks to the divisive present in which communities are arrayed against each other and borders have separated populations.

Manipur’s long history of insurgency informed Devi’s screenplay. “You can be attending a wedding, but there will be a bomb blast outside,” she said. “Life just goes on, it’s incidental. That is what I have tried to bring into the film. Without showing the tension, it would be unreal, because that Manipur does not exist, it’s fictional. I wanted to show life in Manipur.”

International audiences who don’t know about the diversity of Indian cinema were introduced to a new culture through Boong, the director added.

“They are used to Bollywood, and they suddenly saw an India that they didn’t know anything about, with people who don’t look like the Indians they know,” she added. “Also, there is concern all over the world for children in conflict zones, whether it’s Palestine or anywhere else. Perhaps the film somewhere raises a little consciousness about unity, discrimination and tolerance.”

It was important for Devi to explore her ideas through the prism of humour. Boong is poignant but comic too. Devi herself radiates good cheer, always ready to crack a joke or poke fun at herself.

“I always have a parallel track in my head where I’m laughing even in a serious situation,” Devi said. “It helps me cope. Also, certain things are better digested if told through a slightly humorous lens. I treat my film as if I were in the audience. I can’t take it if someone lectures to me. I blank out.”

Devi grew up in Imphal in a family with steep cultural connections. Her aunt is the renowned writer MK Binodini Devi, who hailed from the family of Manipur and is celebrated as one of the state’s first female writers.

Binodini Devi also wrote several screenplays for the legendary Manipuri director Aribam Syam Sharma, including Imagi Ningthem and Ishanou. “She was a great inspiration for me,” Devi said.

Devi’s family on her maternal side owned the first cinema halls in Imphal, she said. “That is why it was so important for me to release Boong in a theatre, even if it’s just one show.”

In the 1990s, after studying mass communications at the Jamia Millia Islamia university in Delhi, Devi moved to Mumbai with the express purpose of working with Santosh Sivan. She had watched his children’s film Halo, about a girl whose dog goes missing, and she wanted to assist him.

“He messaged me recently after watching Boong to tell me how much he loved it,” Devi said. “I told him that I still haven’t had the chance to work with him.”

Also read:

‘Boong’ review: An utterly charming tale of love and tolerance