Manipuri film Boong won the BAFTA Award for Best Children’s & Family Film at the EE BAFTA Film Awards on February 22, 2026, at London’s Royal Festival Hall, beating high-profile rivals including Disney’s Lilo & Stitch and Zootopia 2. The win marks a historic first for an Indian film in the category and brought international attention to a small regional story from India’s Northeast.
Boong is a Manipuri-language coming-of-age comedy-drama written and directed by Lakshmipriya Devi in her feature debut and produced with support from Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani’s Excel Entertainment among other collaborators. The film’s BAFTA moment doubled as an appeal for peace: Devi opened with a Manipuri “Khurumjari,” thanked the academy and used her acceptance to call for an end to violence and for the safe return of joy to displaced children.
Devi told the audience, “The walk up till here felt like the last few steps to reach a summit of a mountain we never knew we were climbing in the first place… Just want to use this opportunity to say that we pray for peace to return to Manipur, 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. We pray that no conflict is ever formidable enough to destroy the one superpower that all of us have as human beings, that is forgiveness… So thank you BAFTA for giving us not only an award but this stage to express our hope.” Her speech, delivered with quiet dignity and presented on stage by Paddington Bear, shifted the evening from spectacle to advocacy.
At its centre, Boong follows a spirited schoolboy, Boong, played by child actor Gugun Kipgen-reported to be a real-life internally displaced person from the Kuki community-on a whimsical journey from Imphal to the border town of Moreh to bring his absent father home as a surprise for his single mother, Mandakini (played by Bala Hijam). Seen through a child’s eyes, the film portrays simmering ethnic tensions, border realities and the everyday struggles of migrant and single-parent families, while sustaining warmth, humour and hope.
Set before the 2023 escalation of violence between Kuki and Meitei groups, Boong celebrates Manipur’s ethnic diversity and everyday coexistence-Meitei, Naga, Kuki and migrant communities-offering a nostalgic, bittersweet tribute to shared life in markets, schools and neighbourhoods. Gugun’s lived experience, the filmmakers say, lends authenticity that humanises statistics about displacement and childhood loss.
The BAFTA win gives global visibility to a conflict that rarely holds sustained international focus and may draw attention from journalists, aid groups and child-welfare organisations. For displaced families and children in Manipur, the victory is a moment of pride and a reminder that their stories can reach the world.
Original Source: https://www.indiatodayne.in/opinion/story/not-just-an-award-but-a-stage-for-hope-the-stirring-boong-bafta-speech-for-manipur-1350244-2026-02-23?utm_source=rssfeed
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Publish Date: 2026-02-23 09:39:00
