The march of Nepali films

 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