In May, Boomba Ride was screened in various categories at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival 2022. The film was produced by Luit Kumar Barman and directed by Biswajit Bora.
Boomba Ride was among the five regional language Indian films selected by the Government of India for screening in this category.
Boomba Ride was selected by the Union Government’s Directorate of Film Festivals to be screened at the Olympia Theatre, the main venue of the Cannes Film Festival 2022.
“I am grateful to the Government of India, NFDC, and Cannes for giving us this wonderful opportunity to screen our film at the Cannes Film Festival. I am hopeful that the film will be welcomed by distributors, exhibitors, and audiences,” Director Biswajit Bora said.
He also appreciated the Government of India for providing a major part of the expenses for the screening, such as visa processing, conducting seminars for the promotion of regional films, booking auditoriums, lodging, etc.
The film, which had a budget of Rs 12-13 lakh, took less than a month to shoot. The film is directed by Biswajit Bora, who made his name with ‘God on the Balcony.’
“Boomba Ride” highlights the plight of schools in rural Assam. The character of Boomba, portrayed by child artist Indrajit Pegu is a government school student. It reflects the lives of school teachers and staff, our education system, corruption in educational institutions, etc.
The filmmaker spent time with the residents of the Mising community and made the film with a completely amateur cast. Child actor Indrajit Pegu was also found when he fetched shop supplies. Indrajit Pegu is a resident of Barmukali village in Dergaon. Biswajit Bora introduced himself as a skilled director and allowed the child to play the role of Boomba.
“As independent filmmakers, we want to show our films to the audience, but we don’t have the stage…the Government of India has done a great job by giving us this opportunity,” he said.