Manjari and blackmailing journalist

The Nepali movie ‘Manjari’ makers have accused a journalist of blackmailing for advertisement. In a Facebook statement, the director of Tuka Entertainment, Ganesh Dev Pandey accused an online magazine FilmyZoom of asking for money. When the film makers refused to give the money, the journalist had threatened of starting negative publicity of the movie.

In an attempt to defame the movie, a review was published stating that the movie will flop. The prediction wasn’t based on any facts but because the movie named after a female name. At the time of this writing, the article is already removed, but there is a Facebook share, showing a portion of the article in the website’s Facebook page.

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Is sex good for Nepali film industry?

"Chapali height" got a good media coverage both before and after release. That was partly because of different controversies the movie was involved in before it was released, and ‘sexual psychology’ highlighted in it’s promotion. Although some have questioned the validity of the claims of its producer that ‘Chapali Height‘ has collected 50 lakhs in a single day, the publicity and viewers in theaters show it should have had a decent  opening. But, one can expect the initial response to fade in lights of negative reviews it is getting from critics and viewers.

Now, the question arises – is the movie getting negative review from viewers just because it has got sexual contents?

‘Chapali Height‘ compares well with a previous similar movie ‘Pal Pal Ma‘ released about two years ago. The movie ‘Pal Pal Ma‘ had also got an adult certificate from the censor board and it was publicized as the first Nepali movie to get an adult certificate. The ‘A’ certificate itself proved to be a tool of good publicity, and a good business as well. But, in essence, ‘Pal Pal Ma‘ had nothing to win the hearts of its viewers and virtually nobody appreciated it as a movie. In the movie, the topic of sex was only used for publicity and it was used in a vulgar way. (watch Palpalma here)

I think, history is repeating in case of ‘Chapali Height‘ too. In the case of both movies, small group of people liked the movie and the majority didn’t.

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Loot – new confidence in Nepali movie industry

Our congratulation to Loot for it’s 51 days celebration on Friday, March 2, 2012 !

This year had been a bit different for Nepali film industry. There used to be a trend in our film industry that, a movie require star cast to be a hit. This year, neither Rajesh Hamal nor Rekha Thapa could ensure a good box office collection. At the same time, new director, new music director, and few struggling actors in ‘Loot‘ proved that a good movie doesn’t need star cast.

Yes, ‘Loot’ is still running in theaters and is extending its market to overseas too.

The fact that ‘Loot’ has become a hot cake topic among the film makers and movie goers left me wondering: is it such a wonderful movie? Should everybody watch it ?

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Nepali Movies – A clash between old and new generations

For the last two decades, Nepali film industry has been ruled by Rajesh Hamal and his craze hasn’t diminished to date. The new comer actors had tried to follow his path, but none have succeeded. Hamal represents masala types of movies with common ingredients like action, comedy, songs, and glamorous actresses.

After the release of "Sano Sansar" and "Kagbeni", Nepali movies had stepped in new direction creating a sharp contrast between the two groups of film makers.

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Chapali Height – copy paste poster again!

The poster of Chapali Height released yesterday are copied from an Michael Douglas’s English movie Basic Instinct. It’s not only the poster, the name also has a similar design.

It’s not only the poster, the name of the movie is also inspired by the movie.

With these similarities, it’s anybody’s guess what the story should be like!

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Two movies releasing on Dashain ‘against rule’

There is no rule as far as release of movies in Nepal is concerned. Even if there are any rules, they are broken every now and then. The so called "queue system" in itself is flawed that good movies take ages to be released in Kathmandu while others get released within weeks it is finished.

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Manoj Pandit’s review and Richa Ghimire’s response to ‘illegal’ website

Background

Manoj Pandit wrote a review of Richa Ghimire‘s movie Brakefail. He wrote – "Richa didn’t look like an heroine in the movie," and published it in a website. Richa got angry, and complained to the police, who arrested Manoj. He admitted his "mistake" in getting personal about the actress. Nagarik published the issue and it was made public.

In the article, Richa claimed that the website, Merocinema, wrote the negative review because of the fact that she refused to provide an advertisement to it.  She also told, only NJA designated journalists should write movie reviews – all others should only write positive things.

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Silsila got it’s turn in Kathmandu after 3 years

A movie released out of Kathmandu some three years ago has finally got it’s turn to be screened in Kathmandu.

Last time I was surprised to see the movie,Chodi Gaya Paap Lagla taking  2 years to reach Kathmandu theaters. Silsila broke the record! 

You can watch Silsila by clicking here.

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Chodi Gaya Paap Lagla – 2 years to reach Kathmandu from Hetauda

Nepali movie "Chodi Gaya Paap Lagla" was released today in Kathmandu.

Outside valley, the movie was released around Dashain of 2066 (almost 2 years ago), that was in Hetauda.

Why did it take the movie to travel from Hetauda to Kathmandu?

You might think, "May be the movie was so bad that people in Kathmandu wouldn’t like it." Not true! It had won 7 National awards.

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Nepali Movies – confusing names – is Nepali language poor?

Nepali TV viewers are often irritated and confused with the Nepali movie related program and advertisements. Every report of upcoming movies adds up a confusion due to the similarity in the name. I usually exclaimed -

What? Didn’t I see this movie last year?

But, the names are not always same, they are similar! It is not only the name that is similar; thanks to the limited supply of artists, they usually have the same actor and actresses. Many get confused and prefer not to visit theaters to watch "similar" movies.

Here are some of the confusing names I came across various newspapers in various themes:

Maya ke ho?

• Ke Yo Maya Ho?
• Ho Yahi Maya Ho
• Maya Ta Maya Ho

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Who loves Nepali movies?

Editor’s Note: This is the final part of “Who loves Nepali Movies?” article series.  This however is not a complete picture of Nepali theaters – there are a lot more to be written about. If we choose to publish more articles on the related theme, we will update this article in the future and, add the links to the new articles.
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Who loves Nepali movies? we do!

And, there are a lot of our friends, our visitors to this blog – they all love Nepali movies very much. Based on the love of the viewers, a lot of Nepali movies are being produced/released every month. At the same time, everybody agrees that the quality of the movie can’t be compared with Indian, Bollywood movies or English, Hollywood movies. Nepali movies have a limited market and our producers have limited resources in terms of producing movies. Not having a single shooting studio in Nepal explains how poor we are in terms of the infrastructure and resources to produce ‘good movies’. But, everybody admits: with such a limited resources we have witnessed some ‘very good’ movies and, that is something to be proud of.

We started this series to analyze if the theaters are treating Nepali movies fairly. Big Cinema, a theater operating on Indian investment announced not to screen Nepali movies accusing – Nepali movies do not have any quality. If that was the case why did they start the business in an immature market? Said that, we are not against some preferential business. They are free to compete in the free market. At the same time, business logic says that they also need to satisfy their client – Nepali people.

Big Cinema has no emotional attachment to Nepali movies. Theaters owned by our own Nepali citizens have emotional attachment with their own creations (most of them are producers too). But, it is a sad truth that they also prefer foreign movies to Nepali movies.

Fact Check Analysis

• Big Cinema – You should learn to love Nepali movies if you want to do business in Nepal.
• Guna Cinema – Heights of discrimination between Hindi movie and Nepali movie viewers.
• Gopi Krishna Movies – Nepali viewers treated with negligence – discouraging the high class Nepali to watch Nepali moives.
• QFX Central – Nepali version of Big Cinema. It should learn to love Nepali movies.

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QFX Central Case Study – There is nothing for Nepali

Editor’s Note: This article is one of the fact-check analyses for the “Who loves Nepali Movies?” article series. Case study of Gopi Krishna Movies, case study of Guna Cinema and case study of Big Cinema were previously published.
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A new shopping mall, Civil Mall, was launched in the center of Kathmandu, Sundhara, in September of 2010. The mall is considered to be a luxurious shopping center similar to City Center. The main attraction of City Center was Big Cinemas, and the big attraction of Civil Mall is another big theatre. Probably, the most expensive theatre in Nepal is named QFX Central. Unlike Big Cinemas, QFX is financed by Nepali nationals and is also a part of Jai Nepal and Kumari theatre. But, that doesn’t mean QFX screens Nepali movies.

The motto of Civil Mall, “There is something for everyone,” is faulty. Sorry guys, you failed for majority of Nepali people, there is nothing for Nepali movie lovers.

Like Big Cinemas, QFX central also thinks Nepali don’t make quality movies and hence doesn’t screen any Nepali movies in it. All you can see in the new, luxurious theater are Hindi and English movies. They prefer flop Hindi movies like No Problem, Je Jyan Se Khelenge Hum to much better Nepali movies like Gorkha Paltan and Bato Muni Ko Phul.
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Gopi Krishna Movies case study – Do high class Nepali love Nepali movies?

Editor’s Note: This article is one of the fact-check analyses for the “Who loves Nepali Movies?” article series. The case study of Guna Cinema and case study of Big Cinema were previously published. All photos by Raunak.
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So-called high class Nepali don’t go to theaters to watch Nepali movies. They say Nepali movies are only for low and lower-middle class people. Why is that?

It is because our theaters practice preferencial treatment to Nepali and Hindi movies! Who would like to be guest to somebody who is so unwelcoming?

Gopi Krishna Movies is one of the biggest multiplex movie theaters in Nepal. Apart from theaters, Gopi Krishna Movies is also engaged in production of Nepali movies. They have been producing at least two movies every year. Like Guna Cinema, Gopi Krishna movies is also directly involved in the betterment of Nepali movies.

Does Gopi Krishna Movies loves Nepali movies?

• Nepali movies featured in theaters with torn and damaged seats
• Customer sometimes are forced to watch their home production movie
• They filter competition when they are featuring home production. Said that, we can safely assume the owner’s friend and families get preferential treatment on holdovers too.

Gopi Krishna has 7 theaters. Out of them, Meera and Radha feature most of the Nepali movies. Recently released movie Dharma, featuring Manisha Koirala, was shown in Radha. The seats shown in Photo 1, is an example of the seats in the theater. Majority of the seats of the theatre are torn and broken. Based on the talents of the crew members and star-casting, the movie was expected to do a very good business, but it wasn’t as successful as expected. We can’t blame the seats, but it would have been better if they could screen such hopeful movies in a better theatre.

Photo 1: Torn seats in Gopi Krishna Movies.

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Guna Cinema case study – Who loves Nepali movies?

Editor’s Note: When Big Cinema told that Nepali movies don’t have quality to be featured in its theater, we took it seriously. Raunak Niroula is doing a more detailed fact-check analysis for the “Who loves Nepali Movies?” article series. This is the case study of Guna Cinema, Gwarko, Lalitpur. Does Guna Cinema love Nepali movies? Let’s see. All photos were taken by Raunak.
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If you have visited some of the multiplex movie theaters in Kathmandu, you might have noticed how they treat the Nepali movie viewers when compared to the Hindi and English movie viewers. If you haven’t noticed these facts, here is the proof.

It’s not only that Nepali movies are screened in small screen, within a small room located at the corner, the difference can be easily seen from the outside.

The following photo shows the entrance of Guna Cinema. As you can see – this portion of the cinema hall is extremely neglected. If you get an impression that Guna is a low quality cinema hall in Nepal, wait until you see the next photo.

Photo 1: Guna Cinema entrance located outside and open – is mainly used for viewers of Nepali movies

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Who loves Nepali movies? Big Cinema doesn’t!

Editor’s Note: Part of the Big Cinema issue was discussed in short previously, in the post titled – Does Nepal need Indian Investment ? The post dealt with Indian investment in Nepal and had a wider scope than Big Cinemas alone. Raunak Niroula has done a more detailed analysis on their decision against Nepali movie and shesds light on how much our own theaters are in waters when treating Nepali cinemas and their viewers. This article is one of the parts of a “Who loves Nepali Movies?” article series.
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We started this series to analyze if the theaters are treating Nepali movies fairly. Let’s start with the latest incident involving Big Cinema, a theater operating on Indian investment.

Big Cinemas, a division of Reliance Media Works Limited (formerly known as Adlabs Films Limited) and a member of Reliance ADA Group is India’s largest cinema chain with over 515 theaters spread across India, US, Malaysia, UK, Netherlands and other countries all over the world. The main aim of Reliance is to spread Big Cinemas multiplex and Indian movies all over the world. It has been a few months that Reliance has launched Big Cinemas in Nepal at NLIC City Centre – a new, luxurious shopping mall at Kamalpokhari, Kathmandu.

The news about Big Cinemas not screening Nepali movies is widely being talked about in Nepali media. Being located in Nepal, their decision against Nepali movie industry is viewed as an insult to the Nepali movie industry and the Nepali people as a whole. In response, Nepali movie fans have created a Facebook group titled “Say No To Big Cinemas In Nepal Because They Don’t Screen Nepali Movies”. The film makers, film producers, producer association and film development board have also voiced their concern in this issue. This issue is also viewed as an example of encroachment of Indian culture to dominate Nepali culture and arts.
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