Flashback 2010 – Nepali celebrities – Actors

Nepali Actors in 2010

This year, chocolaty actor Aryan Sigdel and action hero Biraj Bhatta ruled the movies. Aryan was common in most of the digital format movies released this year. Those were the movies targeted to young generation. In most of the action movies, Biraj Bhatta was featured. This year, Rajesh Hamal was mostly featured in supporting actor role. Another super hit actor, Nikhil Upreti, was mostly talked about his affair with actress Sanchita Luitel rather than the roles he played in movies.

aryan--sigdel_0004

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Flashback 2010 – Nepali celebrities – Actresses

1289549557_namrata_shrestha_homeAfter the analysis of the movies released in 2010 (in Part 1 and Part 2), let’s look back to 2010 and analyze the works of actors and directors to see who were successful and who were unsuccessful in the Nepali film industry.

Nepali Actresses

With two hits movies and an appreciable performance on Bato Muni Ko Phul, Rekha Thapa is the front runner in the list of successful persons in Nepali movie industry in the year 2010. Rekha’s role in Hifajat, Kasle Choryo Mero Mann and Bato Muni Ko Phul were appreciated by the viewers. Her glamorous role in other movies couldn’t leave a long lasting impression in the viewers.

rekha thapa
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News from Nepal December, 2010 (consolidated)

Tara Air flight gone missing – found crashed in Okhaldhunga

Dec 15, 2010 @ 18:41

UPDATE: The lost aircraft of Tara Air was found crashed at Kakanidanda, Okhaldhunga. All of the 22 passengers are reported to be dead in the crash.

Tara Air owned Twin Otter plane has gone missing since the last contact with the airport tower at 3:13 pm on Wednesday 15 December, 2010. The airplane was flying from Lamidanda to Kathmandu.

It has been reported that the flight lost contact five minutes after it took off from Lamidanda airport. The Twin Otter was carrying 22 passengers that included 18 Nepalese passengers, one foreigner and three crew members on board. Captain AR Shakya was in command of the flight.

The plane is reported still missing; however, two helicopters have already been sent to Khotang for the search of the missing Twin Otter. No further details have been reported on the plane.

Tara Air offers PC-6 flights for sky diving, special photography, high altitude mountain flights and rescue operations.

CPN-UML Leaders surprised by Nepal’s proposal

Dec 21, 2010 @ 16:56

Care taker Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal proposed Ram Chandra Poudel be made the next prime minister of Nepal and end the caretaker status of current government. It was a matter of concern that the country cannot afford any more delay in forming new government added Nepal.

The proposal has come as a shocker to many political parties. Maoist’s leaders took the proposal lightly but Chairman Jhala Nath Khanal objected Nepal’s proposal and stated that it was very immature of Madhav Kumar Nepal to make such proposal without even consulting with the party.

“The proposal came from the current Prime Minister when we said that the new package agreements on peace process cannot be materialized under the current caretaker government”, said Maoist Vice President Narayan Kaji Shrestha.

The price of petroleum products will be subsidized

Dec 22, 2010 @ 16:55

The government is in the preparation of subsidizing the price of various petroleum products. The decision was made after a high level task force of the Ministry for Commerce and Supplies prepared a report recommending the subsidies after two rounds of talks. The talks held between representatives of various student unions and consumer forums.
The government is planning to subsidize Rs 300 per cylinder in cooking gas and Rs 50 per month per household in kerosene. In addition, Rs 1600 per year in diesel for farmers will also be subsidized.
If approved by the Council of Ministers, the new system will cost the government an extra Rs 3.5 billion. However, the government has not agreed the proposal; subsidizing the prices in petroleum products could force to cut down various development projects.

Bungy Jump closed on dispute with the local community

Dec 23, 2010 @ 03:56

Update: The Last Resort was officially open later yesterday. The agreement between the resort and the locals is not made public. Previously posted text follows:

If the talks with the locals doesn’t go well, we might see the last of the internationally popular bungee jump in Nepal. In a press release titled “Bungy Nepal and The Last Resort forced to shut down” the owner of the New Zealand-Nepali partnership adventure sports facility, The Last Resort, has told that the locals have forced to close the bungy bridge on Poush 6, 2067. The company says that the local community has claimed the ownership of the bridge and won’t let them do the business on it. (Full press release posted at the end of the article).

The Last Resort, founded in 1999, is located in Sindupalachowk near Barabise. The 160-meter high suspension bridge was constructed on top of steep Bhote Kosi River gorge for bungy jump purpose.

Now the local VDC official and leaders want the bridge to be handed over to them and the company use the facility in a lease agreement. But, the company says that they had build and paid for the bridge and can’t hand it over to the local people. If the local insist on taking over the bridge it will certainly prove to be a bad example for investors. Some argue, what will happen if people in Gorkha ask for the ownership of the Manakamana Cable Car or locals in Kulekhani ask for the ownership of the hydropower project over there.

The copy of the press release:

Case filed against Rubel Chowdhary

Dec 23, 2010 @ 15:45

A case has been filed against Rubel Chowdhary, son in law of Deputy Prime Minister Sujata Koirala, in Supreme Court on Thursday. The case was filed against Chowdhary, a Bangladeshi national for involving in illegal activities such as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service scam.

Chowdhary, not only was charged against the VoIP scam but also is accused of being involved with passport forgery case in Nepal.

Advocate Jayantra Bahadur Thakuri filed the summoned petition against Chowdhary. Meanwhile, Nepali Congress general secretary Mr. Prakash Man Singh spoke against Chowdhary saying that he is equally worth investigated over allegations of his involvement in
illegal acts. The law should be equally valid for everybody and it should apply to him (Chowdhary) as well if found guilty.

22-year-old student murdered in Capital – Colleagues at her workplace suspected

Dec 26, 2010 @ 05:16

A 22-year-old girl, who was pursuing her studies in Capital city, was murdered by none other than her own colleagues at her workplace. It has been reported that police have enough evidence to prove that her own colleagues have murdered her.

Sarala Thapa, a student at 12th grade was found stuffed in sack with multiple head injuries. That sack was found in Bishnumati River at Gongabu on Tuesday.

There were two main evidences that police found made them believe that the murder was none other than her own colleague at her workplace. The recovery of a piece of clothe from her workplace and an audio clip of a conversation between Thapa and Sahil Khan led the investigators to suspect the murderer of Thapa. The motive behind the murder by her colleagues however was not clear. Police have arrested Sahil Khan, Alam Khan and Angila Thapa as suspects for Sarala Thapa’s murderer.

CA Member killed in road accident

Dec 27, 2010 @ 03:45

Late CA member Dambar Bahadur Khadka

CPN-UML Constituent Assembly member Dambar Bahadur Khadka was killed in an accident that took place in Bhaktapur district on Saturday night at around 8:30 pm. He was riding on the motorbike when a passenger bus hit the motorbike at Kaushaltar. Police have arrested the bus driver.
Dambar Bahadur Khadka was elected to the Constituent Assembly from Shankhwasabha Constituency No. 2.

Nepali Girls saved from traffickers in Goa

Dec 27, 2010 @ 17:09

Three Nepali girls, including one minor, were rescued from the traffickers in Goa on Saturday, 25 December, 2010.

According to police in Goa, among three of the Nepali girls, one was minor, who were promised by the traffickers to get job at casino as dancers. However, the three victims were pushed into prostitution later. Thankfully, the girls were lucky on Christmas day to be rescued; they were taken to the state protective on the same day.

Two persons were arrested for trafficking Nepali girls in Goa. They have been identified as Nandisha gowda, 25 from Bangalore and Hanumant Patel, 25 from Rajasthan. Both will be booked under the Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act and Goa Children’s Act for trafficking the girls, including minor.

A baby born with two heads

Dec 29, 2010 @ 03:38

A mother from Dailekh district VDC-9 has gave birth to a child with two heads. Bishnukala Nepali, 37, gave birth to a female child having two heads on the way to the local Balekanda sub health post on Sunday afternoon.

The detailed report on this is still being awaited. No details on this have been reported.

At least three injured in Bomb Blast

Dec 31, 2010 @ 03:59

At least three people were injured in a bomb blast that took place near a hardware store in Surkhet road in Nepalgunj. The three people that were injured in the blast have been identified as Kausal Acharya, Yubraj Chalise and Dilli Regmi. The injured people have been admitted to Bheri Zonal Hospital for treatment.
All the shops were closed following the blast in the city. No further on who may have been involved in the blast has been so far reported.

Nepali Movies, Looking Back to 2010 (Part 2)

Continued from the First Part – Nepali Movies, Looking Back to 2010 (Part 1)

After two years in release queue, Didi Bhai of Sunil Manadhar was finally released this year. A family drama and action movie was liked by a lot of viewers. Fans of Rajesh Hamal, his dialogue delivery, and action have appreciated this movie.

The musical blockbuster movie Nai Nabhannu La, directed by Bikash Acharya, also did a good business inside and outside of Kathmandu valley.

After a long absence from Nepali movie arena, director Naresh Paudyal released Deepsikha. This movie was more focused on the fact that actress Arunima Lamsal was the scriptwriter in the promotion that making it a better movie. The only thing that was successful about ‘Deepsikha’ was the promotional song of this movie. The movie failed big time.

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Nepal featured in Google's Interactive Holiday Doodle

Google homepage featured an interactive holiday Doodle (Google Logo) from December 23 through December 25. The logo features 17 illustrations of scenes of peace, joy and beauty around the world. When mouse is moved over the small picture, it expands and a click takes to Google search page explaining that particular context.

What made this interactive logo special to Nepali all over the world is that, one of the 17 illustration represented Nepal. The painting shows three ladies laughing in front of a structure that looks like a Stupa. A click on that picture takes to the Google search page for Nepal
.

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Nepali Movies, Looking Back to 2010 (Part 1)

As usual, a lot of Nepali movies were released this year. But, none of them could do excellent business either within or out of Kathmandu. Last year, there were some really good movies like Kaha Bhetiyela by Shree Krishna Shrestha and Shiva Regmi. Kaha Bhetiyala did an excellent business all over Nepal. But this year, Nepali film industry didn’t see such blockbuster movie. We expected a few movies to leave their impression. But, all of them didn’t live up-to the expectation.

In the starting of the year, viewers and film makers were hopeful on the movies made by experienced directors and the media was also full of movie news. In the media, in contrast to the usual trend, Nepali movies got more coverage than Nepali music, this year. Some of the things that the viewers look forward to were the comeback of Manisha Koirala and MaHa -duo after a long absence from the Nepali movie industry. This year also saw the comeback of Jharana Bajracharya.

In the Nepali new year (2010, April), Rekha Thapa released her movie Hifajat featuring Aryan Sigdel. The movie did a good business. Glamour and exposure of Rekha Thapa had worked for this movie and was successful in attracting the youth to the theatre. In addition to that, good music, story and Gyanendra Deuja’s direction can be attributed to the success of the movie. Some Hidu extremists tried to create a controversy on to a dress Rekha Thapa wore in the movie. Rekha promotion tactics coupled with the controversy helped the movie in positive ways. A poster of Hifajat, a direct copy form a Hollywood movie was also much talked about during the time.

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Real juice – five fainted after drinking the tainted juice

In a latest news, five people from Kabhrepalanchowk have fainted after drinking Real branded juice. The Dabur Nepal product, Real Juice, has been in the headlines for some time after extensive numbers of quality complaints from all over Nepal.

Naya Patrika writes, the victims are admitted in Shir Memorial Hospital in Banepa. One of the victim, 56 year-old Harikumari Humagain is serious and is being treated in the Intensive Care Unit.

Earlier, there were reports of a police raid and protest in Indian cities on India-Nepal border. The protest was related to on reports that Dabur is
supplying the tainted juice to Indian market.

The police has confiscated the juice packs and is investigating the reason for the illness. (Photo credits Nayapatrika)

Embarrassing story of a mother and her daughter

A mother filed a complaint to the police about bullying. Her complain was against some local boys who have been, for past few days, making mockery of her daughter named Munni. It was complained that boys sung the famous song of an Indian movie Dabang, ‘Munni badnaam Hui Darling Tere Liye‘ whenever Munni passed by her neighborhood.

This had been like a daily routine for the local boys against Munni, and the family was very irritated by the unwelcomed and disturbing activity made by their neighbors. Munni’s mother pleaded to boys not to show such behavior against her daughter but in vain. Instead, boys would defend themselves by saying “what is harm in singing famous song like this”. It had been very difficult moments for the family to stay in such disturbing environment.

Finally, Munni’s mother decided to report this incident to the police after her friends suggested her to do so. Munni’s mother was reluctant to go to the police at first fearing that the embarrassing story would spread like a fire all over cities and it would be even more intolerable for her family.
It was sighing of relief for the family for a week. But the local boys started singing the song “My name is Shila..Shila ki Jawani…” from the Hindi movie ‘Tees Mar Khan’. Coincidently, Munni’s mother name is Shila. The local boys came to know about Mother’s name after she had reported her daughter’s incident. The family’s story got even worse after Shila’s name was revealed in the neighborhood. The local boys would sing both songs whenever the mother and the daughter would pass by the neighborhood.

It was excruciating for the mother and the daughter to stay in such neighborhood that does not have respect for the family. And therefore, they decided to move to different place in the city by changing their names.
The questions to be pondered upon are:

  • Should the mother and daughter have moved out just because the song was sung after their names? Were they so embarrassed that their lives were like hell?
  • Who would you blame for all the coincidences?
  • Should the song writer be blamed for writing such provocative songs? Or should such movies be banned?
  • What would you do if such incident happened to you?

Love Marriage or Arranged Marriage

I was about 14 years old when my vocational teacher (not from my school) told me this incident: one of her good friends from her office chose to marry a girl just because he did not wanted to disappointed his mother. The love birds broke-up days before his marriage, to marry an unknown woman his mother chose. My teacher had all praise for him for that decision, yet my young mind could not understand his side of story more importantly the hidden reason behind that decision.

During my college days, I had a friend who preferred arranged marriage over Love marriage. She had her parents to look upon, admire and have that strong belief in this institution. But when Diana and Prince Charles divorced, her strong belief towards arranged marriage was terribly shaken.

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Thanks Piracy, Yash Kumar might quit movie sector

Maile Choyeko Pani Chaldaina…

Yash Kumar is popularly known for the sweet song in which he expressed his frustration on the traditional Nepali society in which certain ‘lower cast’ can’t touch the water used by ‘higher cast’ people. And, now he has felt as if the distributors are indirectly telling him not to touch the ‘movie sector’.

Yash, a renowned singer, entered to the film industry with his self-produced movie Bato Muni Ko Phul in which, he is also the lead actor. At the time before its release, I asked him, “Why are you entering the film industry? Are you attracted towards the name and fame of an actor?”

Yash replied with a smile, “I am no less than an actor in terms of name and fame. I don’t need that. I want to contribute the industry with a better movie and address the present social scenario.”
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DCN and Movie piracy – is it a conspiracy?

Nepali film industry is really amazing industry in the world. I think our film industry should submit name in Guinness World Record. Reasons? Here you go…

  • Only around 4% of the total population of Nepal watches Nepali film. It is natural for people to like their own movies but, Nepali watch more Hindi and English movies than Nepali movies.
  • At least 2-3 movies are released every week.
  • Only 2-3 movies become successful (hits) per year and other 2-3 movies get their investment back from the market. And rest of the movies are flops.
  • But, all the producers says that their movie were super hit.

Those were only a few of the amazing and interesting things in our movie industry. A recent similar incident was equally shocking to film makers and medias: Piracy of Nepali movies.

Movies distributed by Digital Cinema Nepal (DCN) were pirated at the eastern part of Nepal. That has caused a wave of worries among  producers who had entrusted DCN to distribute their movies. The producers whose movies were pirated are asking compensation from DCN for their negligence.

Two of the victims of piracy were producers Yash Kumar and Krisha Chaulagain. Yash Kumar’s movie Bato Muni Ko Phul and Krisha Chaulagain’s movie Kasam Hajurko were told to be pirated and were found in the DVD shops of eastern Nepal. Bato Muni Ko Phul, produced and presented by Yash Kumar, was released for only a month and was still running in many theatres in the eastern part of Nepal. And, Kasam Hajurko by Krisha Chaulagain, was released a bit earlier and had also done a good business.

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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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Maoists ready for new UML government

Dev Gurung, senior leader of the Unified CPN (Maoist) has said that his party will accept a new government under the leadership of CPN (UML). In the current situation, it does not seem like the other political parties will accept a government led by Maoists. Therefore, his party (CPN Maoist) is ready to accept a new government led by CPN (UML).

Though his party should have the first claim for leadership in the country by the virtue of his party being the single largest party in the constitution assembly, Maoists are ready to accept the chairman Jhala Nath Khanal as the new prime minister of Nepal.

The Maoist politburo, however, will defeat the candidacy of Poudel by voting ag
ainst him if the candidacy of NC parliamentary party leader Ram Chandra Poudel for the post of prime minister still stands.

Wikileaks – Maoist used to sell weapons to Indian Naxals

Wikileaks has uncovered the document sent by US Embassy in New Delhi on 18 April 2006 to the State Department in Washington that mentions – “the Indian Government believes the Nepalese Maoists sold arms to the Indian Naxlite”.

However, the document does not show any operational links between the Maoists in Nepal and India.

Nepal: As noted above, the GOI does not believe
that domestic Naxals and Nepalese Maoists maintain any
significant operational links, except for some commercial
arms sales from the Nepalese to the Naxals. Nepalese Maoists,
however, appear to enjoy relatively free movement within
Naxal-held areas in India along the 1,700 km open border.
While we frequently hear reports of Nepalese Maoist
leaders (including the Number 1 and Number 2 Prachanda and
Baburam Bhattarai) spending long periods of time in India
with leftist sympathizers, the GOI has assured us repeatedly
that it gives no quarter to Nepalese Maoists, and several
high-ranking Maoists are being held in Indian jails.

Yet another cable sent earlier this year from the US Embassy in New Delhi, an embassy official claimed that Nepalese police officers are paid to arrest Tibetan refugees by China. These Tibetan refugees are arrested who are trying to cross the border. This information is contained in a document entitled ‘Update on Tibetan refugee flow’. This information was sent by an unknown official from the embassy.