Lionel Messi Fan’s Journey Anchors Indian Indie ‘Love You Messi’ as Project Boards Hong Kong EP at Cannes (EXCLUSIVE)

Karbi-language indie feature “Love You Messi,” from India’s Rura Rura Entertainment, has attached U.K.-based Hong Kong creative Hiu Man Chan as executive producer following co-production meetings at the Indian Pavilion during the Cannes Film Market.

Chan will oversee the project’s international packaging – handling sales, festival strategy, distribution and marketing across markets outside India, operated through the U.K.

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Directed by Khanjan Kishore Nath and produced by Ranjit Teron, “Love You Messi” is the pair’s second Karbi-language feature together after “Lost Path” (2025). The film is currently in production, with portions already shot during Lionel Messi‘s visit to India last December.

Set in a remote hilly village in Northeast India, the story follows eight-year-old Rang, a Karbi tribe boy with a single consuming passion – soccer – whose idol is Messi. He catches Messi’s matches on a neighbor’s television and tracks down every photograph of him he can find. When Rang adopts an abandoned puppy he names Tung Tung, the dog becomes his steadfast companion. The narrative shifts when Rang learns that Messi is to play a friendly match in Mumbai, thousands of kilometers from his village, sparking an unlikely road trip for boy and dog.

“If you think ‘Love You Messi’ is a film about football [soccer] or about Lionel Messi, then you are mistaken,” Nath tells Variety. “It is not really about football, nor is it about Messi alone. At its heart, the film is about a disabled child’s passion and his longing to discover a world far beyond the boundaries of his small village. It is a story about love, care, humanity, and the courage to chase a dream against all odds.”

“I want to tell this story against the breathtaking landscape of the hilly district of Karbi Anglong, a place where life moves in its own rhythm and beauty flourishes differently,” he adds.

“Hong Kong, my hometown, has a huge number of Messi fans, despite his absence during his tour to the special region,” Chan says. “This film will appeal to the city, where it has an immediate concentrated audience. Being a Messi fan myself, it’s a real joy to be able to join this project and serve as an executive producer. I hope my European network and dynamic approach to international market can help this project to reach the furthest it could.”

Nath received the Rajat Kamal at the Indian National Film Awards in 2020 for his short fiction “Kachichinithu” (The Boy with a Gun). He holds an M.Phil in Mass Communication from Rajiv Gandhi University and studied filmmaking at the Zee Institute of Media Arts in Mumbai.

The production aims to complete filming by the end of the year.