Cannes 2025: The true story behind Neeraj Ghaywan’s ‘Homebound’, impressed by a pandemic-era New York Times essay-OxBig News Network

Vishal Jethwa and Ishaan Khatter in a nonetheless from ‘Homebound’
| Photo Credit: Dharma Productions

Neeraj Ghaywan’s new movie Homebound, which premiered in the Un Certain Regard section on the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, finds its roots in a poignant real-life story first instructed in a New York Times op-ed throughout India’s COVID-19 lockdown. The movie, which drew a standing ovation at its premiere however didn’t take residence any awards, was impressed by journalist Basharat Peer’s 2020 essay Taking Amrit Home (now retitled A Friendship, a Pandemic and a Death Beside the Highway).

The essay recounts the journey of two younger migrant employees, Mohammad Saiyub and Amrit Kumar, associates from Devari village in Uttar Pradesh. One Muslim, the opposite Dalit, the pair had migrated to Surat in Gujarat, working in several factories and sharing a rented room. When India entered a strict lockdown in March 2020, factories shut down, and their financial savings started to dwindle. With public transport suspended and no entry to coach tickets, they finally boarded a crowded truck headed for residence. During the journey, Amrit fell significantly sick.

Fearing an infection, fellow passengers deserted him on the roadside. Saiyub, nonetheless, refused to depart his good friend behind. Stranded in rural Madhya Pradesh, they had been finally admitted to an area hospital with the assistance of an area politician. Amrit died shortly after, not from COVID-19, however from dehydration. Saiyub, who examined unfavourable for the virus, carried his good friend’s physique again to their village.

The story caught Ghaywan’s consideration throughout the pandemic. A advice from good friend and producer Somen Mishra at Dharma Productions led him to the article. What moved Ghaywan most appeared to be the tender, non-political friendship between two younger males from traditionally oppressed communities, navigating each a humanitarian disaster and the burden of social divisions.

While Dharma Productions negotiated the rights with TheNew York Times — since Peer was not employed there and subsequently acquired no royalties — Ghaywan started engaged on a script that fictionalised the protagonists’ backstories whereas staying trustworthy to the journey described within the article.

The ensuing Homebound, stars Vishal Jethwa and Ishaan Khatter as Chandan Kumar and Mohammed Shoaib Ali, characters primarily based on Amrit and Saiyub. Their shared aspiration to hitch the state police service and escape the constraints imposed by caste and faith varieties the emotional basis of the movie.

Vishal Jethwa and Ishaan Khatter in a nonetheless from ‘Homebound’
| Photo Credit:
Dharma Productions

Martin Scorsese, who had beforehand supported the restoration of Indian classics however by no means a recent Hindi-language manufacturing, came on board as executive producer after being launched to the challenge by French producer Mélita Toscan du Plantier. “Neeraj has made a beautifully crafted film that’s a significant contribution to Indian cinema,” Scorsese stated in an announcement.

For Ghaywan, who grew up in a Dalit household, the movie’s themes are private. “I am the only acknowledged person from the community who is there behind and in front of the camera in all of Hindi cinema history,” he famous. His motivation for the challenge was easy: “What if we pick one person out of that statistic and see what happened in their lives?”

Despite lacking out on a prize, Homebound acquired sturdy vital response, and its presence at Cannes will doubtless translate to potential award season competition later within the 12 months, à la Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine As Light.