By Gautam Sharma
When Boong walked away with the Best Children’s and Family Film award at the 79th BAFTA Awards, one child artist remained largely unmentioned by the media, particularly in the mainland. He is 13-year-old Angom Sanamatum from Imphal, who played the role of ‘Raju Agarwal’, an emotionally and psychologically supportive friend of the main protagonist, ‘Boong’.
Most media narratives focused on a similar line—that of a Kuki boy, taking a Meitei role in strife-torn Manipur—but little attention was paid to a Meitei boy playing a Vaishya (merchant) or broadly a Marwari character. Even less was highlighted about how a Meitei boy and a Kuki boy became good friends through the film, developing a bond undivided by conflict and ethnicity.
Meet the 13-year-old Angom Sanamatum, aka Raju Agarwal—a little-shy student of Blossom School in Imphal, currently studying in Class 8. He hails from Kwakeithel Thokchom Leikai in Imphal West district of Manipur. Sanamatum loves playing football and dreams of becoming a footballer, but he also wants to pursue a career in acting. If given another chance, he says he would give a big “Yes”.
While the media in Manipur gradually concluded their search for ‘Raju Agarwal’, what mattered most for him was the encouragement from his school. Blossom School proudly felicitated him as a talented student child artist for his remarkable performance as one of the child protagonists in the acclaimed Boong.
After the film completed its shooting, Angom Sanamatum could not catch the last living glimpse of his father, Angom Sanayamba. While Sanamatum and his mother, Potsangbam Serina, were in Mumbai in October 2024 for a film festival, they were informed from home that his father had breathed his last on October 23, 2024. The mother-son duo rushed back to Imphal, where the last rites were performed on October 24.
Today, the famed Boong may not require any introduction among cinephiles in Manipur or global audiences, but Raju Agarwal may still need one. His story deserves to be told—from the hidden glens of Manipur’s valley—of a boy, the youngest sibling among two sisters, now being brought up by a single mother. So, what is Raju Agarwal’s story?
