Janhvi Kapoor, Homebound and the Weight of Sridevi's Name

Janhvi Kapoor entered films in 2018 as the daughter of Sridevi and the producer Boney Kapoor, and spent her first years answering to that name. In 2025 she took a different kind of film to Cannes. Homebound, directed by Neeraj Ghaywan, premiered there to a long ovation and was later chosen as India's entry for the Oscars.

The start

Wikipedia says Kapoor was born on 6 March 1997 in Mumbai, studied at Ecole Mondiale World School and took an acting course at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute in California. She made her debut with Dhadak (2018), a Hindi remake of the Marathi film Sairat, co-starring Ishaan Khatter and produced under Karan Johar's Dharma Productions.

The entry says Dhadak received predominantly negative reviews but was a commercial success, with a worldwide collection of 1.1 billion rupees. Her next releases did less well at the box office, but she earned Filmfare Best Actress nominations for Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl (2020) and Mili (2022).

Cannes, with and without her mother

Homebound had its world premiere at the 78th Cannes Film Festival in May 2025. The Indian Express reports that it received a nine-minute standing ovation, and that the film also stars Ishaan Khatter and Vishal Jethwa. It was Kapoor's first time at Cannes with a film, though she had visited the city many times with her mother.

She told The Hollywood Reporter India, as quoted by the paper, "I would spend a lot of time here with mom. We spent a lot of summers here." She said it was the first time she, her father and her sister Khushi were back together at Cannes with a film but without Sridevi.

The look

Kapoor made her Cannes debut in a blush pink Tarun Tahiliani couture outfit, according to the Indian Express, and many fans drew parallels with Sridevi's looks, suggesting a tribute. NDTV headlined the look a regal tribute in blushed tissue and pearls. Neither report quotes Kapoor confirming that it was a deliberate homage, so the comparison remains the commentators' reading.

The film

Mint describes Homebound as the story of two childhood friends from a small North Indian village who chase a police job that promises the dignity they have long been denied, until desperation threatens their bond. Karan Johar produced it through Dharma Productions.

The paper adds that the film also drew a standing ovation and the second runner-up place for the International People's Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival. It was set for release in Indian theatres on 26 Sept. 2025.

The Oscar selection

Mint reports that the chairperson of the selection committee, N Chandra, confirmed at a press conference in Kolkata that Homebound had been selected as India's entry in the Best International Feature Film category for the 2026 Oscars. He said 24 films from different languages were considered, chosen by a 12-member committee of producers, directors, writers, editors and journalists. "These were films that touched the lives of people," he said.

Selection as the country's entry is not a nomination, and nothing in the sources we read says how the film fared in the Academy's later rounds.

What we could not confirm

We could not confirm the outcome of Homebound's Oscar campaign, because the sources we read predate it. The earnings figure for Dhadak comes from Wikipedia and we did not verify it. We did not read the Hollywood Reporter India or Vogue India interviews directly, only the Indian Express quotes. We found no source confirming the look was an intentional tribute.

Sources

*Cover photo: Kacy Bao, Wikimedia Commons, *[*https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Janhvi_Kapoor_at_2025_Cannes_Homebound_Photocall_3.jpg*](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Janhvi_Kapoor_at_2025_Cannes_Homebound_Photocall_3.jpg)* (CC BY-SA 4.0).*