Ten Opposite Trends in Nepali Cinema

In the world history of cinema, those with “contradictory” views have become victorious. The students of cinema take those names with pride, those cinemas that have done “contradictory” in their time.
This is even more in Nepali cinema. However, there is no reason to be excited about the “opposite” or “contradictory” or “different” views in Nepali cinema. Because, the outcome of these “opposite” attempts are “opposite”, not creative.



1. Heroine’s Dress up
The Nepali film makers just want to cash in by making the heroines wear shorter clothes. You can find in cinema, a Nepali heroine wearing bedroom dress in class rooms.


2. Wrinkle-less cheeks
The older actors never want to look old, even when they are playing old character.


3. Weak and Stupid Characters
In Nepali films, the leading character (Hero) is almost always portrayed as weak, poor, helpless and alone. He cannot afford to eat two times a day. No one believes him. He is proud and righteous, in other words – he is stubborn and stupid. On top of that, all sorts of diseases usually pester him. All the troubles and worries of the world that can be imagined, the hero character is endowed with.


4. Pay (not be paid) to become the “Star”
Most of the actors/actresses become hero/heroine by investing money into the film. They don’t get paid, they pay. Most of the “chalti ma raheka” actors/actresses entered into the industry by investing their own money.


5. Stories written to suit the actors
First, the actors are selected and then a script is written to suit the actors. On the notebooks of storywriters, one can find numerous stories/scripts that are written specifically for Rajesh Hamal, Nikhil Upreti & Biraj Bhatta.


6. Financer or Producer
The one who invests in films are financers. There’s a trend in Nepali cinema to see the financers as producers.


7. Posters that reduce audience
The designs of Nepali film posters have remained same for the last 20 years. They have resemblances of 30 years old Hindi film posters. The colour, font and design of almost all the posters are same.


8. Stars/Actors in pursuit of Media
Because, the number of actors/actresses is greater than the number of actual audience, in Nepal, the “Actors/actresses are always hounding the media” – not the other way around.


9. Releasing of films from small town
In other parts of the world, the movies are released in the largest city first. Nepali movies are however released first in the smaller town and later only in the bigger cities.


10. Then 35 mm, now 16 mm
Nepali films are shot in 16mm and later in cinema halls, the film is blown up into 35mm and thus the picture instantly looses half of the original quality. The technical progression of Nepali cinema is exactly opposite.


Dipendra Lama

- first published on NAYA PATRIKA Nepali Daily (issue; April 19, 2008)

Nepali films copied from...

Films and Directors:

(Black: Nepali, Red: Original film)

1. MERO EUTA SATHI CHHA (Sudarshan Thapa)

A MILLIONAIRE'S FIRST LOVE (Kim Tae-gyoon, Korea)

2. SANO SANSAR (Alok Nembang)

MY SASSY GIRL (Kwak Jae-yong, Korea)

3. KARTAVYA (Narayan Puri)

KEEMAT (Sameer Malkan, India)

4. CHOR (Rajkumar Sharma)

ANARI (K. Muralimohana Rao, India)

5. INSAAF (Shovit Basnet)

DANNY THE DOG (Louis Leterrier, US)

6. SUPERSTAR (Anish Koirala)

RANGEELA (Ram Gopal Verma, India)

7. RAANKO (Kishor Rana)

SHOLAY (Ramesh Sippy, India)

8. DANVEER (Shovit Basnet)

AAG (K Ravi Shankar, India)

9. JINDAGANI (Ujjawal Ghimire)

HOGI PYAAR KI JEET (P Vasu, India)

10. ALPA VIRAM (Narayan Puri)

NO MAN'S LAND (Danis Tanovic, Bosnia-Herzegovina)

11. PAHILO PAHILO MAYA (Deepak Shrestha)

AA GALE LAG JAA (Manmohan Desai)

12. KARODPATI (Kishor Rana)

APNE DAM PAR (Arshad Khan)

13. MAMAGHAR (Narayan Puri)

SAAT RANG KE SAPNE (Priyadarshan)

14. AAGO (Narayan Puri)

DILJALE (Harry Baweja)

15. HIMMAT (Deepak Shrestha), TAQDEER (Deepak Shrestha) & MA TIMI BINA MARI HALCHHU (Dayaram Dahal)

SITA AUR GEETA (Ramesh Sippy)

16. BARAMALA (Gyanendra Deuja)

HUM DIL DE CHUKE SANAM (Sanjay Leela Bhansali)

...to be updated soon