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

Neeraj Ghaywan’s new film Homebound, which premiered in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, finds its roots in a poignant real-life story first told in a New York Times op-ed during India’s COVID-19 lockdown. The film, which drew a standing ovation at its premiere but did not take home any awards, was inspired 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 young migrant workers, Mohammad Saiyub and Amrit Kumar, friends from Devari village in Uttar Pradesh. One Muslim, the other Dalit, the pair had migrated to Surat in Gujarat, working in different factories and sharing a rented room. When India entered a strict lockdown in March 2020, factories shut down, and their savings began to dwindle. With public transport suspended and no access to train tickets, they eventually boarded a crowded truck headed for home. During the journey, Amrit fell seriously ill.

Fearing infection, fellow passengers abandoned him on the roadside. Saiyub, however, refused to leave his friend behind. Stranded in rural Madhya Pradesh, they were eventually admitted to a local hospital with the help of a local politician. Amrit died shortly after, not from COVID-19, but from dehydration. Saiyub, who tested negative for the virus, carried his friend’s body back to their village.

The story caught Ghaywan’s attention during the pandemic. A recommendation from friend and producer Somen Mishra at Dharma Productions led him to the article. What moved Ghaywan most seemed to be the tender, non-political friendship between two young men from historically oppressed communities, navigating both a humanitarian crisis and the weight of social divisions.

While Dharma Productions negotiated the rights with TheNew York Times — since Peer was no longer employed there and therefore received no royalties — Ghaywan began working on a script that fictionalised the protagonists’ backstories while staying faithful to the journey described in the article.

The resulting Homebound, stars Vishal Jethwa and Ishaan Khatter as Chandan Kumar and Mohammed Shoaib Ali, characters based on Amrit and Saiyub. Their shared aspiration to join the state police service and escape the limitations imposed by caste and religion forms the emotional foundation of the film.

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

Martin Scorsese, who had previously supported the restoration of Indian classics but never a contemporary Hindi-language production, came on board as executive producer after being introduced to the project by French producer Mélita Toscan du Plantier. “Neeraj has made a beautifully crafted film that’s a significant contribution to Indian cinema,” Scorsese said in a statement.

For Ghaywan, who grew up in a Dalit family, the film’s themes are personal. “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 noted. His motivation for the project was simple: “What if we pick one person out of that statistic and see what happened in their lives?”

Despite missing out on a prize, Homebound received strong critical response, and its presence at Cannes will likely translate to potential award season contention later in the year, à la Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine As Light.