New Delhi, Feb. 24 -- Gugun Kipgen, the 13-year-old lead actor of the Manipuri-language film Boong, which won the Best Children and Family Film award at the 2026 BAFTAs, is staying away from the limelight. The Kuki boy who played the titular Boong, a Meitei, in the movie, is busy preparing for a language test in his class 6 final exams in New Delhi, friends and relatives in Manipur said.

The movie about a boy's search for his father, shot in Manipur, wrapped up just weeks before May 3,2023 , the day ethnic clashes started between Kuki-Zos and Meiteis in the state that led to the death of 260 people and the displacement of over 50,000. Kipgen and his family, then residents of Imphal, were among those displaced. Since January last year, th...