“I want to use this outlet to say that I hope Madonna can watch the film,” Lakshmipriya Devi, the filmmaker behind the Manipuri-language title Boong, explains earnestly during a short interview with Deadline after Sunday night’s BAFTA Film Awards.
“I did write to her on Instagram when we were selected for Toronto, but obviously, she doesn’t check her DMs.”
Devi chuckles as she finishes her sentence. Boong, which debuted at TIFF in 2024, contains a running joke connected to the popstar’s 1989 hit ‘Like a Prayer.’ The film also pulled off a surprise win Sunday night at BAFTA to take home the Children’s and Family Award. The film beat out Hollywood blockbusters Lilo & Stitch and Zootropolis 2 to clinch the award.
“I want to thank everyone because I truly believe that everyone who watched the film manifested this,” Devi said of her win on Sunday night. “It’s been two days, and I’m still texting thank you to people.”
Directed by Devi from a screenplay she also wrote, the film was produced by Excel Entertainment (Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani). The story follows a young boy navigating ethnic tensions in the Northern region of Manipur to bring his father home. Devi is a veteran First Assistant Director. Her credits include large-scale Indian productions like Luck by Chance, Talaash, PK, and A Suitable Boy. Boong is her directorial debut.
BAFTA’s Children’s and Family category is chaired by a jury, who pick the nominees and winners. This year’s jury was chaired by Andrew Miller, one of the UK’s most prominent activists for disability rights in the arts.
Devi said that she and her film team didn’t have to campaign because of the jury structure, the Children’s and Family Jury simply “watched the film and longlisted it, and then we were nominated.”
“I did meet the chair of the Jury at the BAFTA dinner. He came up to me, and I was really happy to meet him,” Devi said.
After its TIFF debut, Boong played the London Indian Film Festival before receiving a boutique theatrical release in select cities across the UK, like Leicester, which has a large population of people of Manipuri descent.
Devi added that she believes the film impressed the BAFTA jury and audiences who managed to see it, because it is a “universal story about a mother and her son and an absentee father that anyone can understand.”
The filmmaker added that the film’s language and representation of Manipur probably also won over audiences.
“It was probably a world people had never seen before, because when you think of Indian cinema, you associate it with certain images and people. Manipur is very different, culturally. So it was maybe a novelty for them,” she said.
When asked what she plans to do next, Devi said jokingly: “sleep.”
“I need to sleep and get my energy back to just recuperate my mind and body,” she continued.
“I can’t let all this get into my head. If a story comes to me that I really want to tell, I can’t be thinking of myself as the winner of X or Y award.”
