Neeraj Ghaywan's "Homebound" has brought Mohammad Sayyub and Amrit Kumar's heartbreaking story to the global stage but the people of the village in Uttar Pradesh's Basti district are still waiting for a screening of the film.

The movie, which had its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May and has been chosen as India's official selection for the 2026 Academy Awards, is inspired by journalist Basharat Peer's The New York Times article “Taking Amrit Home” (A Friendship, a Pandemic and a Death Beside the Highway). It was released in theatres last month.

The article narrated the true story of Amrit Kumar, a migrant worker from Devari village in Basti's Bankati block, who collapsed from heat stroke on a highway while returning home from Surat during the COVID-19 pandemic, and his friend

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