By Gautam Sharma
If an avid reader is asked to relate the panache of BAFTA’s social media pages, he or she may recall the lines spoken by Nick Carraway in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald: “People disappeared, reappeared, … and then lost each other, searched for each other, and found each other a few feet away.” This aptly mirrors the journey of the acceptance speech video of Boong director Lakshmipriya Devi, which first appeared on BAFTA’s social media pages, then suddenly disappeared, and unexpectedly reappeared again on BAFTA’s YouTube page, where it is suspected to have been re-uploaded on Friday night.
“Dear @BAFTA, did you remove the acceptance speech of an Indigenous woman director of an award-winning film from Manipur, BOONG, from your social media accounts @X and Instagram? If yes, erasure of the acceptance speech of the director is tantamount to cultural erasure of Indigenous peoples’ and women’s voices and must be reinstated immediately. Inclusion, and not erasure, of our voices and our stories is the way forward,” Manipuri activist Binalakshmi Nepram posted on X, questioning the move.
Call it the Manipur-born activist Binalakshmi Nepram’s magic effect, or the subsequent media reports first carried by WION. Late on Friday, Lakshmipriya Devi’s winning speech reappeared on BAFTA’s YouTube channel. In the video, she is seen rooted deeply in Manipuri heritage, wearing draped set-in sleeves paired with a phanek (sarong) and an olive-green phee featuring Manipur’s iconic temple motif. The attire is reported to have been designed by Manipur’s renowned “Phiruk” collection, handwoven and crafted by artisans of Khurkhul village on the fringes of Imphal West district.
“Khurumjari! (Greetings to all) … So, thank you to the jury members and BAFTA for giving our small film such big love. A film that is not only rooted in a place which is very troubled, very much ignored, and very unrepresented in India, my homeland Manipur. It’s a homage to my homeland. So, I just want to use this opportunity to say that we pray for peace to return to Manipur,” Lakshmipriya Devi said in her speech.
Her speech was also aired on the BBC during the broadcast of the awards event and was shared on BAFTA’s X and Instagram pages on Sunday. However, without any clarification or explanation, and with no suspected technical glitches, the video mysteriously disappeared from the pages, seemingly lost in a vacuum. The incident of the video appearing and then disappearing angered netizens across India, particularly in Manipur, who felt proud of her speech, her identity, and her heartfelt prayer for peace.
