‘Masaan’ director Neeraj Ghaywan’s ‘Homebound’ selected for Cannes 2025’s Un Certain Regard

Director Neeraj Ghaywan posing during a photocall for ‘Masaan’ at the 68th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes
| Photo Credit: AFP

Ten years after his breakthrough debut Masaan was selected for Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section, filmmaker Neeraj Ghaywan returns to the Croisette with his sophomore feature Homebound, again featured in the same category. The film’s inclusion in the 2025 lineup positions Ghaywan as India’s representative at the festival this year, following closely on the heels of Payal Kapadia’s historic Grand Prix win for All We Imagine As Light in 2024.

Produced by Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions in collaboration with Varun Grover and Somesh Mishra, the film features Ishaan Khatter and Vishal Jethwa, with a reported cameo by Janhvi Kapoor.

Homebound joins a diverse slate in Un Certain Regard, a section of the Cannes Film Festival devoted to highlighting emerging talent. Among the other films featured this year are Scarlett Johansson’s directorial debut Eleanor the Great, Akinola Davies Jr’s My Father’s Shadow, Diego Céspedes’ The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo and Harris Dickinson’s Urchin.

Last year, Sandhya Suri’s debut feature Santosh, a police procedural set in rural India, also premiered in the Un Certain Regard section.

For Ghaywan, Homebound marks a significant return to feature filmmaking. His debut, Masaan (2015), received the FIPRESCI Prize at Cannes and quickly became a touchstone for India’s new wave of realist cinema. Co-written with lyricist and writer Varun Grover, Masaan was lauded for its layered storytelling and has since attained cult status both in India and internationally.

Born in Hyderabad in 1980 to Maharashtrian parents, Ghaywan’s path to cinema was trained as an engineer and later an MBA in marketing, he spent several years in corporate roles before transitioning to filmmaking, initially as a film critic. His early work caught the attention of director Anurag Kashyap, whom he later assisted on Gangs of Wasseypur and Ugly. He describes Kashyap as a formative mentor during his transition to directing.

Between Masaan and Homebound, Ghaywan built a formidable body of work in short and episodic storytelling. His 2017 short Juice, which starred Shefali Shah and dealt with gender dynamics in Indian households, won the Filmfare Award for Best Short Film. He directed the critically acclaimed Geeli Pucchi segment in Netflix’s anthology Ajeeb Daastaans, praised for its exploration of caste, queerness, and workplace politics. Ghaywan also served as co-director on Sacred Games Season 2 and as an episodic director on Made in Heaven Season 2.

ALSO READ:‘All We Imagine as Light’ movie review: Payal Kapadia’s radiant ode to a city and its outsiders

With Homebound, Ghaywan’s selection continues a growing presence of Indian filmmakers at Cannes — a trajectory reaffirmed last year when Kapadia became the first Indian in three decades to compete for the Palme d’Or and win a major prize.