{"id":710540,"date":"2026-04-07T07:42:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T07:42:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/710540\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T07:42:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T07:42:16","slug":"sholay-boong-lead-new-york-indian-film-festival-lineup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/710540\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Sholay,’ ‘Boong’ Lead New York Indian Film Festival Lineup"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tBAFTA-winning Manipuri-language film \u201cBoong<\/a>\u201d has been set as the opening night selection for the 2026 New York Indian Film Festival, which runs May 28\u201331 in New York City, with a 4K-restored presentation of Bollywood classic \u201cSholay<\/a>\u201d leading off the event at a gala preview night on May 28.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe restored \u201cSholay\u201d print will be screened with its original ending. Director Laksmipriya Devi will attend the May 29 opening night screening of \u201cBoong\u201d and take part in a post-screening discussion. Set in Manipur, the film follows a young boy seeking to bring his absent father home, threading themes of longing, identity and fractured family life through the landscape of a border town.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWith \u2018Boong,\u2019 we are opening the festival with a lovely film that blends humor and struggle in a rarely visited part of India,\u201d said Aseem Chhabra, festival director of NYIFF<\/a>. \u201cIt is authentic, rooted, and internationally recognized \u2013 exactly the kind of cinema NYIFF champions. The film won a BAFTA award beating two major contenders produced by Disney.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe festival\u2019s centerpiece slot will go to the world premiere of \u201cFlowers of Acacia,\u201d screening May 30. The Punjabi-language film is the second feature from Punjab-based filmmaker Anmol Sidhu, whose debut was \u201cJaggi,\u201d and is presented by Shonali Bose. The film trains its lens on the grip of patriarchal custom in Indian society.<\/p>\n

\n\tAlso on the special nights slate is a 25th anniversary screening of \u201cDil Chahta Hai,\u201d Farhan Akhtar<\/a>\u2018s directorial debut, and long considered a touchstone of contemporary urban Hindi cinema.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe festival closes May 31 with the New York premiere of \u201cTighee\u201d (Motherhood), a Marathi-language film directed by first-time filmmaker Jeejivisha Kale and produced by Indian National Film Award-winning director Nikhil Mahajan, whose credits include \u201cGodavari\u201d and \u201cRaavsaheb.\u201d Lead actors Nehha Pendse and Sonalee Kulkarni are both expected to attend. The film centers on two sisters, long estranged, who are drawn back together by a family crisis, unearthing questions of sacrifice, obligation and the weight of unresolved history.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cClosing the festival with \u2018Tighee\u2019 is incredibly special,\u201d said Suman Gollamudi, Indo-American Arts Council executive director. \u201cIt is a film of rare emotional intelligence \u2013 intimate, powerful, and deeply human \u2013 leaving audiences with a sense of reflection and connection.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BAFTA-winning Manipuri-language film \u201cBoong\u201d has been set as the opening night selection for the 2026 New York Indian…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":710541,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,295887,44768,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,295888,178735,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-710540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-america","tag-boong","tag-farhan-akhtar","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyiff","tag-sholay","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116362303825977588","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/710540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=710540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/710540\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/710541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=710540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=710540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=710540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}