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Karan Johar, who has worked closely with Janhvi Kapoor since her debut, said Homebound proved to be a therapeutic process for the actor.
Homebound team at the Cannes film festival.
Janhvi Kapoor’s performance in Neeraj Ghaywan’s Homebound has been met with critical acclaim, receiving a rousing nine-minute standing ovation at its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. The film was screened at the Debussy Theatre on Wednesday and was attended by Ghaywan, lead actors Ishaan Khatter, Vishal Jethwa and Janhvi, along with producer Karan Johar and his Dharma Productions team, including Apoorva Mehta and Somen Mishra.
For Kapoor, Homebound was more than just another film. Portraying Sudha, a Dalit girl in a North Indian village, pushed her into uncharted territory both emotionally and socially. Director Neeraj Ghaywan, known for his sensitive storytelling and strong social commentary, was vocal about the transformation he witnessed in her.
“She’s been maligned publicly and heavily trolled, but when people see this film and her true potential, they’ll wake up to see she’s really made of something else,” Ghaywan told Variety. He shared that during the film’s preparation, Kapoor began reflecting on her own background and privilege. “She started questioning her own privilege. I gave her Ambedkar’s ‘Annihilation of Caste’ to read, and she went into a rabbit hole of trying to understand the glaring differences that we live with together,” he said.
Karan Johar, who has worked closely with Kapoor since her debut, said Homebound proved to be a therapeutic process for the actor. What began as a 10-day workshop with Ghaywan for a shelved project turned into an experience of personal growth. “She felt she was in 10 days of therapy with Neeraj, and she felt healed as a result,” Johar said. “Even now, she says those seven or eight days spent on the sets of Homebound will be her best days spent on a film set. She felt she wasn’t really acting but going through some sort of personal catharsis.”
Set in a rural North Indian village, Homebound centres on two best friends Shoaib (Ishaan Khatter), a Muslim, and Chandan (Vishal Jethwa), a Dalit, who dream of becoming police officers. As they await responses from the government after passing their entrance tests, they are forced to confront social, economic and personal barriers. While Shoaib struggles to care for his ailing father, Chandan joins college, in part to stay close to Sudha (Janhvi Kapoor), a fellow Dalit from a slightly more stable family background.
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