The Bodo-language film wave: Kokrajhar’s new cinema tells its own stories

For decades, Bodo-language cinema meant documentaries funded by cultural bodies. A new generation is making features — love stories, gangster tales and family dramas — shot in the towns of the north bank.

The films screen in Kokrajhar’s multiplexes and travel to festivals, and streaming platforms are beginning to license them.

Filmmakers say the wave is about identity as much as art: ‘We are done being the subject of other people’s films.’