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Covid-19 has made the cinema industry fragile. All of us are trying to cope with the situation and at this juncture, even small progress gives us hope and confidence. If we look at the pre-Dashain periods of the past three years, we can see a huge difference between them, and that captures our situation.

Normally, Dashain would bring in a handful of cinemas to the theaters. As completing a movie takes a few months, or even years, preparation for its Dashain release had to start at least in February or March.

If we look back at the Dashain of 2019, the year before the pandemic, everything was going according to plan. Dashain gave us several blockbusters. When we started preparing for the next Dashain, unfortunately, the pandemic hit us badly.

We didn’t see any Nepali movies released anywhere during the pandemic. We didn’t have the market. There were a lot of movies in the pipeline just looking for a releasing platform. They will get their turn as the lockdown is now eased. Most importantly, cinema halls are reopening.

I hope people will come to the halls to watch movies. We have all come this far in the pandemic, so entertainment is what everyone wants. Nepali movies will hopefully deliver what the audiences want. So, Dashain particularly has boosted the energy on both sides of the screen; it’s like a lucky charm. 

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I think the pandemic has also brought home some important lessons. It affected the entire world, but the Nepali film industry suffered disproportionately as we do not have the concept of OTT platforms. Movies continued to be released all over the world, but we did not know what’s next. So, let’s say Covid-19 came with some positivity in terms of the lessons that we learned. At least, we now realize the importance of online platforms. We are now more into low-budget quality movies—also a great initiative. This Dashain has come with great hopes, let’s wait to see how it delivers.

There are still a lot of things that can be improved. We have to maintain our quality, otherwise people won’t come to the halls just to sympathize with us. All the related sectors and authorities should collaborate to improve our situation.

We have enough movies and yet the halls are back with foreign films. This has to change, which is only possible if we deliver the goods. Also, during this pandemic, audiences have followed foreign movies of exceptional quality and they will have high expectations from us too. Now, there are no other shortcuts or options except to constantly improve ourselves. Catchy movie songs and a high glamor quotient alone won’t be able to lure audiences any more.

Since the second wave of Covid-19, we have worked on new movies too. I have already completed two movies and am going for another two. Fingers crossed.

 In the five years I have spent in the Nepali film industry, it has progressed on many fronts. Due to growing professionalism and educated people taking acting as a career choice, there is new respect for actors. The graph of our Nepali movie industry looks like a wave. When I entered this industry, it was pro­gressing, probably due to the release of “Loot”, which was a landmark film. Then, the graph fell again. I think the problem with the industry is that when a movie does well, oth­ers want to make similar films. They do not want to take risk in the fear of commercial failure.

Thankfully, I can see Nepali film­makers focusing on good content now. With our audience getting smarter and more aware, there is a focus on investing in good scripts. Movies are playing a huge role in delivering social messages and rais­ing issues through visual arts, as you see with movies like “Gopi” and “Bulbul”. Even though most still want to make comedy films, as our audience seem to prefer this genre currently, there is still progress on creating creative content. There are many talented people in the field of literature and I think these people need to attempt writing scripts for films as well.

To carry out these scripts, the industry has some really good actors. In my opinion, many cur­rent films are successful due to these actors. Before, anyone with­out experience or expertise could be an actor but now due to many people entering acting, there is a healthy competition. The industry is also welcoming theater actors like Dayahang Rai and Karma Shakya. And with the field becoming more professional, actors do feel the pres­sure to get better at what they do. As this profession gains respect, even highly educated people are choos­ing acting as a career, so the indus­try is more liberal and progressive.

Female actors are also becom­ing safer within the fraternity. Five years back, I used to hear stories of women being victims of casting couch. Thankfully, I never faced it. And now, these horror stories have decreased significantly, thanks to the #MeToo campaign. I had strug­gles of my own, such as having to deal with low pay.

I would again say this field has become more professional in the past 3-4 years. And this is not just with actors but with the whole film fraternity, from concept develop­ment to screening of the films.

Additionally, due to technological progress, visual effects and camera work in Nepali films are getting bet­ter. The use of high-quality cameras has boosted creativity. Even though this has led to increased budgets, it has certainly improved the quality of the films being produced.

The demand for Nepali films is increasing globally. But even now Nepali films don’t do well in India, even as they are gaining in popular­ity in Sikkim and Darjeeling. Inter­national filmmakers are also search­ing for Nepali movies and watching them. This means new audiences for Nepali films. In Nepal, what I see is, the audience that watches one Nepali film is the same audi­ence that watches another Nepali movie, whatever the genre. And we have not been able to tap into new Nepali audience. We are progress­ing though and just one movie can change this trend for the better.

Surakshya Panta is a Nepali actor who has appeared in movies like Gopi, Changa Chet and Dhanapati