The Scene Drift

There is an aching honesty woven into Neeraj Ghaywan’s cinema, where systemic realities meet raw, tender humanity. Ever since his breakthrough with Masaan, the filmmaker has continually turned his lens toward the delicate friction between identity, societal barriers, and quiet resilience. With Homebound, Ghaywan crafts a profoundly moving portrait of individuals navigating a world eager to reduce them to simple checkboxes, sparking thunderous standing ovations from Cannes to the 22nd Marrakech International Film Festival.

Backed by executive producer Martin Scorsese and now streaming globally on Netflix, the film stands as one of India's most significant cultural exports of the year. Ahead of the film's showcase in Morocco, The Scene Drift sat down with Ghaywan to discuss personal identity, stealing biryani on Eid, and stripping oppressors of their power.

          

Uniting Landscapes and Breaking Checkboxes

Following an emotional nine minute standing ovation at Cannes, Homebound has arrived in Marrakech with the same undeniable emotional resonance. Yet for Ghaywan, the international response does not feel like an exercise in changing perspectives, but rather in bridging them.

"In fact, I feel that it is uniting the landscapes," Ghaywan explains. "The response that I have got everywhere is the same: either people identify with it because structures deny you visibility, and it makes you feel seen and heard, or people from privilege acknowledge their privilege. They understand how much of the burden of their privilege is inflicting upon people of the marginalized community, people from third world countries across the world. That connection is what has resonated."

The narrative strikes directly at modern tokenism through a biting line delivered by Chandan, observing that no matter what marginalized people achieve, they remain reduced to their checkboxes on an application form. For Ghaywan, that line comes directly from his own past.

"Chandan’s track is borrowed from my own upbringing," he reveals. "I grew up in a Dalit household, which is lower caste, and I tried to pass off as an upper caste for many years, about thirty five years. It creates a huge insecurity. It makes you feel like you have to always watch your back: is someone spotting you? Is someone recognizing you? And then they will abandon you. The fear of abandonment was too much. The weight was too much, and then one fine day I thought I will claim my identity. In India, for jobs, for academia, on every form you have to tick the box that applies to you. People always see you as a category, a marginalized person, but they do not see the human behind you. We are always seen as statistics. That was the whole intent: to humanize the experience."

The same sensitivity extends to the character of Shoaib, highlighting the subtle, erosive power of everyday microaggressions and Islamophobia.

"Across the world we can see that there is this insurmountable amount of hate and Islamophobia," Ghaywan observes. "It comes in the form of microaggressions, where people think that certain comments will not bother anyone, but it dehumanizes a person so much that they alter the course of their entire lives."

When Cinema Gods Collide: The Scorsese Factor

Homebound’s universal resonance caught the attention of none other than Martin Scorsese, who joined the film as an executive producer and hosted an in depth discussion with the team in New York.

"Beyond my personal happiness of literally meeting your cinema god, he spoke to me for thirty minutes with a lot of audience members," Ghaywan recalls with a smile. "It was exhilarating. I had not even dreamed of such a moment. And he has worked with us for about a year and a half on the film: the scripting stage, the edit stage, going back and forth with us selflessly. That is truly the sign of a master. But what I also feel is that his voice and his recognition of these people gives them validation. It makes them seen and heard across the world. Their stories are now universalized."

Corporate Life and Eid Biryani Heists

Before stepping onto festival carpets and international sets, Ghaywan spent years navigating the corporate sphere, earning an engineering degree and an MBA before realizing his heart lay entirely with storytelling.

"I did jobs where they gave me fancy titles, but the work was not for me," he admits. "I think I was driven to cinema and filmmaking all my life. I was a corporate person for seven years. I was getting paid well, so I thought I was happy. I equated money to happiness. Then I realized deep down I was always searching for something creative, something audiovisual to work on. Had I not been fully unsatisfied with my corporate life, I would not have pushed myself to quit my job and just get into cinema."

When asked about his fondest on set indulgences, Ghaywan immediately points to the food, admitting his connection to one particular dish ran even deeper than the script suggested.

"Biryani has to be it," Ghaywan laughs. "You know, I am actually that biryani thief in real life! My neighborhood was fully Muslim, and my best friend was Askar. His house had the best biryani. On Eid and during Ramadan, I would wait for food to come from their house. One time it did not come for a very long time, so I jumped across my building, hopped into their house, snuck in, and I was eating when I got caught!"

Reflecting on his favorite memory from production, the director points directly to the spiritual weight of the camera: "Directing Shoaib, Ishaan Khatter, and Vishal in the bridge scene. It was a truly spiritual experience."

Shifting the Burden of Shame

For Ghaywan, the true triumph of Homebound is not merely premiering on massive screens or tracking potential awards campaigns, but imparting a lasting sense of liberation to those who feel constantly pressed down by the world.

"Because we come from marginalized backgrounds, we carry the shame more than the people that inflict it upon us," Ghaywan reflects. "Once we let go of that shame, because that shame is theirs, everything changes. It is not on us to carry. They should be ashamed to call us this. They should be ashamed to judge our religion, our caste, or our class. Once we decide, 'I do not care, I will be who I am,' that gives power. Your oppressor will have no more reason to shame you, because their power is in your shame. Just put the shame back on them."

With an official campaign underway and immense international acclaim already secured, Ghaywan remains characteristically grounded about what lies ahead.

"Coming this far itself is such a big victory for me," he says. "We have been campaigning really hard because it is also a responsibility: to make these voices celebrated across the biggest platforms. That responsibility of being an Indian, and how much it means to our country, is something I do not carry lightly. But personally, I have zero expectations. I only want to work hard. Whatever comes, I will take it as a blessing."

Homebound is streaming worldwide on Netflix.