At one point during our over-30 minute video call, Indian director Theja Rio, currently in the spotlight for winning big at an international festival also earning his film, Angh, a qualification to the best International Film category at the 2027 Oscars, recounts a meme he recently saw.&nbsp;
&ldquo;No matter how sad you think you are in life, remember there is a guy from your home town who still thinks he can become a rapper,&rdquo; he chuckles.&nbsp;
Of course, he is far from being sad. In fact, he is savouring a moment that he admits won&rsquo;t last forever. But it&rsquo;s a good time to remember that as a kid, he wanted to be a rapper, before he fell in love with the movies. He still writes rap, but for the boy, born and raised in Kohima, Nagaland, music exists in the stories.&nbsp;
<img title="A still from the film, Angh" src="https://images.mid-day.com/images/images/2026/oct/For-the-love-nagland-b_1791682782_s.jpg" alt="A still from the film, Angh" width="1280" height="720" />A still from the film, Angh
And winning the Platform Prize at the Toronto International Film Festival for Angh has only emboldened the voice in him. &ldquo;I want to make films abroad as well. I grew up watching a lot of Hollywood films and film set in the UK. And that is also an ambition that I have. The first film I saw in cinemas was Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (2003). That stills remains one of the most impactful moments of my life,&rdquo; he shares.
The desire to go global coexists with his affinity to tell stories of his roots. Just how Angh is the story of the past and the present of Nagaland coexisting. Set in the Mon district of 1960s Nagaland, Angh tells the story of different generations staying connected despite their contrasting realities. It began as a short film idea in 2018, which Rio brought to fruition in 2021. But his producer Nancy Nisa Beso knew he needed more time to make his feature debut.&nbsp;
&ldquo;When he wrote the short film, he mentioned that this had to be made into a feature but we lacked resources and infrastructure then. We knew it was going to be a feature someday but we didn&rsquo;t know how, when, where. So we made the short film. It received an incredible response from the global community,&rdquo; she tells us.&nbsp;
<img title="A still from the film, Angh" src="https://images.mid-day.com/images/images/2026/oct/For-the-love-nagland-c_1791682800_s.jpg" alt="A still from the film, Angh" width="1280" height="720" />
&ldquo;Then, he went to a film school, and I think he&rsquo;d already written the feature version before that. But going to film school really helped him understand the way &nbsp;a feature has to be made. And Theja has mentioned several times that the farther away you are from home, from your own roots, the thirstier you become to learn about your own culture and traditions. You also have a better idea of how you need to tell the story because there is that longing for home, which is a little more emotional than it is while being there,&rdquo; she adds.
In his decade-long career, Angh is actually the first film that is deeply rooted in Naga culture. The award-winning drama served as a moment of realisation for the filmmaker-writer that he wanted to continue to tell stories of where he came from. And even as he went to the National Film and Television School (NFTS) in 2022, the interest in developing Angh remained intact. Something else, however, changed, &ldquo;Making the short film, I realised I was taking a U-turn in the themes and subjects that I usually explore and I was starting to set my stories where I came from. While being at NFTS, that voice remained as is, but what the school changed was how I wanted to tell these stories and through what lens and perspectives I wanted to tell them,&rdquo; he shares.
The feeling of climbing the global ladder of cinema as well as joining the race for the Academy Awards are slowly sinking in for Rio, but he says, as a matter of fact, that there were very few times in his filmmaking journey that he doubted the reach of his talent. He credits this belief to his dream of becoming a director even before he &ldquo;reached the age of reason.&rdquo;&nbsp;
The surety about Rio&rsquo;s craft allows Beso to keep betting on &nbsp;him and be a constant collaborator on his journey. It also lends her strength, now that she begins planning the film&rsquo;s journey to make it to the list of top five best international films for the Oscars. &ldquo;While we have qualified for the Oscars, there&rsquo;s a process to it. In the next two months, they are going to do shortlist 15 films. And then the final list will have five films from around the world. So, in the next 10-15 days we have to plan a strategy for how to do this, the US release, how to get in touch with the Academy members, how to do multiple screenings. There&rsquo;s a lot of work to do. We have some offers from distributors in the US. So, hopefully in the next few days, you will hear a good news from us,&rdquo; she shares.&nbsp;
But before the Oscar madness begins, Rio, perhaps, needs a break from the &ldquo;hectic interviews&rdquo; the mention of which he makes twice during our conversation, even as he is grateful for the attention. &ldquo;But I know that this is not something that&rsquo;s going to last forever so I&rsquo;m trying to enjoy the moment,&rdquo; he smiles.

Weeks after winning the top prize at the Toronto International Film Festival for their Nagaland-set drama Angh, director Theja Rio and producer Nancy Nisa Beso

Director Theja Rio and producer Nancy Nisa Beso on making the award-winning Nagaland-set drama Angh

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Weeks after winning the top prize at the Toronto International Film Festival for their Nagaland-set drama Angh, director Theja Rio and producer Nancy Nisa Beso tell us about starting their Oscar journey, and telling stories of home 

For the love of Nagaland

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