‘Boong’ director on BAFTA win: Reminder of a place called Manipur, outside of Bollywood indie

Mumbai, Mar 9 (PTI) The BAFTA award for her Manipuri language film "Boong" is a reminder to the world about a place called Manipur and it is now up to audiences to "take that knowledge forward", says Lakshmipriya Devi, adding disarmingly that she now wants to go back "under the radar".

"Boong", about a young boy searching for his father in conflict-scarred Manipur, is the first Indian film to win a trophy at the awards gala, organised annually in London by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA). The 2024 coming-of-age drama was announced as the winner in the Best Children’s and Family Film category last month.

Though the film came about relatively easily, post-production took a long time because of tensions in the northeastern state, grappling with societal polarisation and political unrest in her homeland, she said.

"I could not edit the film for a very long time. I would break down every time I would see the footage. Knowing that the entire second half of the film was shot in places that were now in rubble... it affected me. It took a couple of months before I could look at the footage objectively from a distance,” Lakshmipriya told PTI in an interview.

The filmmaker, who grew up in Imphal, is still coming to terms with the incredible win and the moment she got it. It still feels unreal.

"I was in a daze. The only thing I told myself, ‘Oh my God, this is so heavy. How much will the excess baggage cost'?" she laughed.

And because she's a low-budget director, Lakshmipriya said she's still not getting that "Wow, something has changed" feeling.

"I’m still the same. In fact, I want to go back more under the radar after this and not let this get to me,” she said.

"With film festivals like BAFTA at least the first step of awareness has been created, which is like giving people the idea that, ‘Hey, there’s a place called Manipur and films like this are outside of Bollywood indie’ but beyond that it’s up to to audiences to take that knowledge forward and apply it." The filmmaker said it takes her a lot of time to process things.

"The moment we got back here, there's been a constant rush of work happening, so I haven’t had a moment just to myself. I think that's when it will really hit me,” the director said.

In her acceptance speech at the awards gala, Lakshmipriya chose to highlight the suffering of people in her home state. "The walk up till here felt like the last few steps to reach the summit of a mountain we never knew we were climbing in the first place. I just want to use this opportunity to say that we pray for peace to return in Manipur," she said in the speech. Set against the racial tensions of Manipur, her film follows Boong, a resilient schoolboy determined to bring his absent father home to surprise his mother.

Produced by Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani's Excel Entertainment, it stars Gugun Kipgen and Bala Hijam in the lead roles.

It was the only Indian film nominated at the awards and beat international competition from other nominees "Lilo and Stitch", "Arco" and "Zootopia 2" to bag the trophy.

Lakshmipriya, niece of the renowned Manipuri writer MK Binodini Devi, has been working in the Hindi film industry since the early 2000s as an assistant director on Excel Entertainment’s movies like “Luck by Chance”, “Lakshya”, “Talaash”, Rajkumar Hirani’s “PK”, and others.

A major catalyst for “Boong”, which the director described as a “deeply personal movie”, was her grandfather’s yearning for his father who lived in exile in Myanmar.

She said she would often write her thoughts about her grandfather's stories in a journal. Since she lacked confidence in her English, she gave up the idea of writing a book.

“I was writing it to get it out of my system. Since I had worked in films as an assistant director, the story became a script and that’s how by fluke (this film happened). It was like, ‘Let me attempt this’ because it was such a deeply personal story and I couldn’t give it to anyone else to direct. So that’s how I ended up directing it," the filmmaker said.

She narrated the idea to a producer friend, Vikesh Bhutani, who was then working at Excel Entertainment. Bhutani liked it and that’s how Farhan Akhtar, Ritesh Sidhwani, and Chalkboard Entertainment came on board.

“I didn’t have some dramatic struggle story. It might be unbelievable to people but there was no torturous drama,” she said.

"Boong" explores themes of love, discrimination and belonging through the emotional cross-border journey of the child.

“…I was thinking since I’ll not get a chance again (to direct film) so Whatever I wanted to say like my experiences, thoughts on friendship, discrimination, closure, and new beginnings, is there in this film,” she said.

The director, who admires filmmakers like Sai Paranjpye, insisted the film is not intentionally "political".

“This is not a political film. It is the story of a boy who lives in a place where these kinds of things happen... If somebody thinks its political, it’s their perspective," she said.

Recalling the making of the film, Lakshmipriya said the cast and crew comprised different ethnicities from Manipur and maintained a “spirit of community” after the conflict began.

Despite the international acclaim, Devi is in no hurry to capitalise on her BAFTA win. Currently based in Mumbai, she plans to celebrate with her crew and eventually travel home to watch the film with the team and the locals in Manipur.

Any plans for follow-up film? “They (people and fans) shouldn’t wait. I'll make a film only when I feel strongly about something," was her candid reply.

“I like doing things at my own pace. If I don’t have something to say, I won’t. Directing cannot be a job for me; it has to remain a passion. For a job, I’ll do assistant directing to pay rent," Her immediate plans are far quieter: sleep, read books of her favourite authors, including George Orwell, and Arundhati Roy’s “Mother Mary Comes to Me”, and take up scheduling jobs.

"Boong” had a limited theatrical release in September last year. Buoyed by its BAFTA win, the film re-released Friday. PTI KKP RB MIN MIN