It was Karki’s love of litera­ture that inspired him to act. A hard-worker who never compromises with his work, Karki has a special way of preparing for his roles. He rereads the scripts countless times to get under the skin of his characters. He then end­lessly discusses his roles with his directors in order to work how and when to improvise, and tweak the script.

 

“I work to make my charac­ter interesting for audiences of all age groups,” he says. But first, he wants to convince his directors and producers. “Sometimes they are pleased to see that the character they had in mind is someone com­pletely different.” That is how Karki adds versatility to his roles. “Bhasmey don” was one such outcome of this creative process. Perhaps because he puts in so much he is mentally exhausted at the end of his shoots.

 

Although celebrated as a versatile actor, Karki is still critical of his work. “I still find little mistakes. Although I have been praised for the characters I have played, I want to keep improving on what I do,” Karki says.

 

“Acting mimics human life,” is a mantra Karki received from one of his gurus, which he still abides by. Karki says it took time for him to under­stand what it meant. “There are millions of people in this world but no two people are the same,” says Karki. “This is why I want to do different characters. I prefer not to play the same role twice.”

 

Karki considers Saugat Malla his inspiration and someone who prompted him to take a broader per­spective on acting. “He taught me a lot. He put in so much effort even into small roles,” he says. “I was fortu­nate to be his room­mate in Gurukul. He is my big brother, my friend and also my guru.”

 

Bipin Karki is now one of the highest paid actors in the Nepali film industry, on the back of a string of hits like “Hari”, “Nakaa,” and “Jatra”. But things were not always easy for him and he has had his share of struggles to reach this point in his career. It was a lot of hard work, mixed with some luck, which turned a Nepali literature and sociol­ogy student into an actor of the finest finesse.

 

As a college student, Karki had once visited Gurukul to watch a play and immediately got fascinated by the world of theater. “I found dramas the most powerful form of litera­ture, where one could express one’s true feelings with ease,” says Karki. “That first show captivated me and from that point visiting Gurukul became a routine.”

 

With the passage of time he became more and more interested in acting. Gurukul cast him for a street play when they were short of an actor and thereafter Karki started getting small roles in theater. But he was not satisfied. “The human heart is hard to please. I hungered for something big­ger and better,” he recalls.

 

Again a stroke of luck had him replace an actor in a major production. His peers and seniors at Gurukul were quick to recognize his dedica­tion and offered him work as a set assistant. He spent almost 10 years in Gurukul before it closed down. Not a sad ending for him though as it motivated him to look for work in the film industry and the rise of the character actor began. Karki debuted alongside his friend Saugat Malla in “Acha­rya,” playing a small role as his sidekick.

 

From being a sidekick to acting in a lead role in ‘Hari’, Karki has indeed had a rollercoaster ride. “Some­one said, if you want some­thing with your whole heart, the world will somehow get it for you,” says Karki. “All I had was a dream and the will to make it happen, and now it’s a reality”.