Boong : The child who carried Manipur to BAFTA Beyond applause - the deeper story of a society that negotiates identity through art

Dr Raj Singh
From Cannes to BAFTA, from documentary realism to children’s cinema, Manipuri filmmakers have persistently translated social turbulence into aesthetic expression - proving that even with a minuscule market, a society can assert itself through culture
When Boong, directed by Laxmipriya Devi, won the Children’s & Family Film award at the BAFTA Film Awards in 2026, celebration rippled across Manipur and the whole Indian Nation. For many, it was a triumphant headline : a small-language film from India’s North East defeating global studio contenders. Yet if we pause at applause alone, we overlook the deeper continuity. Boong is not an isolated breakthrough. It is part of a cultural pattern - a reminder that Manipuris have long negotiated politics, identity, and dignity through art.
The Small Market Paradox
Manipur’s film market is undeniably tiny. Limited theatres. Limited capital. Limited National distribution. From a purely economic perspective, the region should not sustain a steady stream of award-winning cinema. Yet it does. The paradox reveals something fundamental: in Manipur, cinema is not merely commerce; it is conversation.
Political economists note that industries flourish where markets expand. Cultural sociology, however, suggests another driver: where communities feel misunderstood or marginalized, artistic production intensifies as a form of symbolic assertion. Cinema here functions less as entertainment and more as civic expression.


A Lineage of Quiet Global Recognition
Long before BAFTA, Manipur had already whispered into global cultural spaces. Aribam Syam Sharma remains the towering pioneer. His film Imagi Ningthem won the Grand Prix at the Festival des 3 Continents in Nantes, marking an early international milestone for Manipuri cinema. Later, Ishanou travelled to Cannes’ Un Certain Regard and, decades afterward, reappeared in Cannes Classics - an extraordinary gesture of global respect that few regional cinemas achieve.
At the National level, recognition followed consistently. Chatledo Eidi and Phijigee Mani won National Film Awards in the Manipuri category, affirming that the region’s storytelling was not episodic brilliance but sustained craftsmanship. Later, Eikhoigi Yum added to this lineage of National acknowledgment.
These films shared neither lavish budgets nor commercial scale. What they shared was seriousness - an insistence that stories from Manipur deserve aesthetic dignity.
Documentary as Social Witness
Equally vital is the documentary tradition shaped by filmmakers such as Meena Longjam. Her film Auto Driver won the National Film Award for Best Film on Social Issues, following a woman auto-rickshaw driver in Imphal. The narrative is simple, yet politically resonant: gender, labour, survival, dignity.
Her later documentary, Andro Dreams, portraying an all-girls football club from rural Manipur, earned major festival recognition. These works demonstrate that Manipuri cinema is not confined to fiction. It documents lived realities - from economic struggle to feminine resilience, transforming ordinary lives into ethical commentary.
Similarly, Loktak Lairembee, directed by Haobam Paban Kumar, won a National Film Award for its environmental focus. By centring Loktak Lake and the lives entwined with it, the film transformed ecological crisis into emotional belonging. In Manipur, environmental discourse becomes cinematic poetry.
What Makes Boong Distinct
Against this backdrop, Boong feels both fresh and familiar. Its narrative follows a child searching for his missing father amid a fragile social environment. The child’s closest companion belongs to a community often labelled as “outsiders.” The storytelling avoids polemics; instead, it relies on intimacy.
Sociologically, this approach resonates with Gordon Allport’s contact hypothesis : prejudice diminishes when individuals encounter one another as equals in meaningful relationships. Boong enacts this quietly. Two children walk together. Friendship precedes ideology.
In her BAFTA acceptance speech, Lakshmipriya Devi spoke of forgiveness and children’s resilience. That framing matters. Rather than amplifying grievance, the film foregrounds moral repair. It offers hope not as sentimentality but as discipline.
Why Art Becomes Political Language
Anthropologists often describe Manipur as a society with deeply embedded aesthetic traditions - classical dance, martial performance, ritual theatre. Historically, art here has never been peripheral; it has been integral to governance, spirituality, and communal life.
When political discourse polarizes, aesthetic discourse expands. Art becomes the grammar through which social anxieties are processed. Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of cultural capital helps illuminate this pattern: communities convert artistic achievement into symbolic legitimacy, particularly where economic capital is constrained.
Awards - from Nantes to Cannes to the National Film Awards and BAFTA - do more than decorate filmmakers. They convert cultural labour into recognition, ensuring that voices from a small linguistic community enter National and global archives.
The Attention Economy Challenge
Yet there is an uncomfortable reality. Manipuri films often struggle for mainstream Indian visibility unless validated internationally. Distribution networks remain centralized in metropolitan India. Thus, when Boong won a BAFTA, National media attention surged.
This pattern reveals not a lack of talent, but a structural imbalance in attention. India frequently notices its margins only after foreign acknowledgment. The irony is striking: the world sometimes watches Manipur more carefully than the rest of India does.
Cinema as Resistance to Simplification
Conflict regions are frequently reduced to headlines of unrest. Manipuri filmmakers resist that reduction. Rather than dramatizing violence for spectacle, they foreground interiority-grief, longing, ecology, resilience.
Imagi Ningthem explored parental bonds. Ishanou examined spiritual calling. Auto Driver chronicled gendered survival. Loktak Lairembee meditated on ecological belonging. Boong centers childhood and friendship.
Collectively, these works complicate simplistic narratives. They insist that Manipur is not merely a site of crisis but a landscape of layered human experience.
Youth and Aspirational Imagination
For Manipuri youth, such recognition reshapes aspiration. Cinema ceases to be an external industry monopolized by Mumbai or Hollywood. It becomes locally imaginable.
Cultural success broadens vocational imagination - a subtle yet powerful developmental factor.
Development theorists argue that progress depends not only on infrastructure but also on aspiration. When a BAFTA-winning film emerges from Imphal, the geography of possibility expands.
The Deeper Political Meaning
What, then, does Boong ultimately signify?
Not merely an award. Not merely pride. It signifies continuity - from Aribam Syam Sharma’s pioneering global presence to Meena Longjam’s documentary courage to Lakshmipriya Devi’s child-centred narrative. It signifies resilience - art produced not because the market guarantees reward, but because storytelling itself becomes survival.
A society under stress can retreat into bitterness or expand into expression. Manipur repeatedly chooses expression. That choice carries political weight. It prevents conflict from monopolizing identity.
When global audiences watch Boong, they do not see statistics of unrest. They see a child searching for his father. When they watch Auto Driver, they encounter a woman steering dignity through crowded streets. When they revisit Ishanou, they encounter spirituality and feminine mysticism.
Art disrupts prejudice by restoring complexity.
Beyond the Obvious
The obvious narrative is simple: a Manipuri film won BAFTA. The deeper narrative is richer: for decades, Manipuri filmmakers have spoken persistently through cinema, often without adequate markets, distribution, or institutional backing.
Their work forms a parallel discourse to political debate - quieter, yet enduring.
BAFTA did not discover Manipur. It amplified a voice long active.
Manipuris have always spoken through dance, drum, ritual, poetry, documentary, and fiction. Through fathers lost and daughters driving autos. Through lakes endangered and football teams rising.
And now, through a golden mask raised in London, the world has paused long enough to listen.
Academic & Theoretical Notes
1. Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities - media and storytelling in constructing collective identity.
2. Pierre Bourdieu, Distinction - cultural capital and symbolic legitimacy.
3. Gordon Allport, The Nature of Prejudice - contact hypothesis and reduction of social bias.
4. Arjun Appadurai, The Capacity to Aspire - aspiration as a developmental resource.
5. Cultural studies scholarship on peripheral cinemas and symbolic recognition in global film circuits.
PS: The author has not had a chance to watch Boong. All mentions of the film in this article have been sourced from the widespread media.