Apr 01, 2026 5:57pm IST
Post ‘Boong”s Success, Here’s A Look At How Northeast India Arrived On India’s Cinematic Map
"Boong," which won a BAFTA earlier this year again brought Northeast India into focus, including states like Manipur, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, and Assam. We also saw the beauty of Nagaland in "Pataal Lok" Season 2. Here is a lowdown.
'Pataal Lok'
‘Pataal Lok’, starring Jaideep Ahlawat as Hathi Ram Chaudhary and Ishwak Singh as Imran Ansari, with Tillotama Shome joining the lead cast, returned for its second season. It went to Nagaland for the shoot, and it was the right call, as the Northeastern state's geography, its insurgency history, and its specific relationship with the Indian state gave the season a texture and weight that the first season, excellent as it was, didn't have. The audience also agreed that this region added to the series and gave it one of its best film materials.
'Boong'
Directed by debut filmmaker Lakshmipriya Devi and produced by Farhan Akhtar’s Excel Entertainment, ‘Boong’ follows a young boy navigating the ethnic tensions of Manipur as he searches for his missing father near the Myanmar border. It won the BAFTA for Best Children’s and Family Film in February 2026 – beating 'Lilo and Stitch' and 'Zootopia 2' becoming the first Indian film to win in that category. It premiered at TIFF in 2024, won at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards, and was barely seen in India until the BAFTAs changed that overnight. The film was shot in places like Ukhrul District, Kamjong District and areas near the Indo-Myanmar border.
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'Bhediya'
A horror-comedy about a man bitten by a wolf in the jungles of Arunachal Pradesh sounds like a premise. Starring Varun Dhawan and Kriti Sanon, the movie ‘Bhediya’, directed by Amar Kaushik, has done justice to Arunachal Pradesh by capturing it the right way. The place has never looked like this on a Hindi film screen, with the fog, forests, and topography adding to the overall impact of the movie. The movie was shot in the many regions of Ziro, Sagalee, and Pakke-Kessang district. The film is streaming on JioHotstar.
'Rock On 2'
Farhan Akhtar’s sequel, ‘Rock On 2’, also starring Shraddha Kapoor, Arjun Rampal, and Purab Kohli, took its characters to Shillong, Cherrapunji, and the living root bridges of Mawlynnong – accidentally turning Meghalaya into a travel destination. The film was a commercial disappointment, but the locations were not. A generation of Indian travellers who had been watching the same Shimla locations in the films for years discovered a new geography entirely because of this film. The film is streaming on Prime Video.
'Anek'
Anubhav Sinha’s political thriller, ‘Anek’, is about identity and what it means to be Indian when the Indian state has been at war with its own community. Ayushman Khuranna plays an undercover intelligence officer. The film shoots across Meghalaya and Assam and uses that geography as an argument and not merely as a backdrop. It underperformed at the box office, but it is still one of the most visually and politically specific mainstream Hindi films made about the Northeast. The film is streaming on Netflix.
'Fighter'
Siddharth Anand’s action film, "Fighter", starring Hrithik Roshan, Deepika Padukone, Anil Kapoor and Karan Singh Grover, is primarily about the Indian Air Force. The action sequences are shot at the Air Force Station in Salonibari, Tezpur, Assam. The Assam sequences are something else – a reminder that the Northeast has been on India’s frontline in ways that most of the country’s cinema rarely acknowledges. The film is streaming on Netflix.
The south for the discourse. The Northeast has been getting the work done. "Boong" winning a BAFTA was the moment that finally got the industry's attention.
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