Author: Raunak

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Who loves Nepali movies?

Posted on by Raunak

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

Posted on by Raunak

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.

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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?

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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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First Look – Kaslai Diun yo Joban

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There is an old saying in our society that to hide a lie we have to speak hundreds of lies. This is what we can get in the movie Kaslai Diun Yo Joban directed by young and talented director Suresh Darpan Pokharel. Movie is released inside Kathmandu valley from today i.e. December 17, 2010. An old Indian wine in a new Nepali bottle. That sums up Kaslai Diun Yo Joban, directed by Suresh Darpan Pokharel and produced by Kedar Parajuli, Bhanu Acharya and Krishna Shrestha.

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Guna Cinema case study – Who loves Nepali movies?

Posted on by Raunak

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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Dharma couldn’t use the full potential of Manisha Koirala

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The most awaited movie, Dharma, featuring Manisha Koirala was released recently (on December 10, 2010) all over Nepal. There were two reasons for the craze among movie goers:

First and the most important reason was the comeback of Manisha Koirala in Nepali film after two decades of absence. Movie lovers had a great expectation from Manisha Koirala based on her immense popularity in Hindi movies and Bollywood experience. The second reason was its director Dipendra K Khanal who had presented Rajesh Hamal in a new look in his movie The Yug Dekhi Yug Samma. Dipendra tried to present something new in his first movie The Yug Dekhi Yug Samma, which the viewers didn’t like as expected. Dipendra says that the movie was made in different trend, and was not suitable on our industry. So, he has tried to come up with a purely commercial themes in his movie Dharma. Dipendra has studied film direction in China. This is also one of the reasons to have high hopes on his movies. In short, Dharma has got educated and experienced team. Dharma starcast Rajesh Hamal and Nikhil Upreti apart from Manisha is also another huge strength.

But, medias and newspapers reviews of Dharma is not as good as expected. They say the movie has nothing new and has the same masala that are used in old Hindi and Nepali movies. The only new thing is the actress, team, location, and presentation of those old subject matters.

When I watched the movie, I found the music was also good apart from the team. But the story had nothing new in it and it was was presented in purely filmy way. In some places, those filmy styles were added by force and it was very obvious. The dialogue delivery of Manisha Koirala was also not that good. Manisha had spoken Nepali language in the tone sounding more like Hindi and English. Manisha had expressed her dissatisfaction with the director and his style of direction during the shooting of the movie.

What might be the reason?

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Who loves Nepali movies? Big Cinema doesn’t!

Posted on by Raunak

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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Success story of Gorkha Paltan

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Before the release of the movie ‘Gorkha Paltan’, most of the people in Nepali movie industry were confident that the movie will not succeed in the box-office. Everybody believed, the movie rely on the main attraction of the movie, the third Indian Idol Prashant Tamang,who turned his career as an actor with this movie. Their assumptions is valid in the historical context of Nepali cinema – singers-turned-actors were mostly successful in the box-office in the past.

Except for a few fans of Prashant Tamang, most of the general public was not that happy by the news that Prashant Tamang was acting in a Nepali movie. Most believed that a lot of Nepali voted Prashant and supported him during Indian Idol contest as he was a good singer. But as an actor he was untested and nobody knew if he was good enough.

Hence, it was clear Prashant Tamang’s reputation will not work to make this movie hit and even the producers were also not that sure in the success of the movie in box-office. That uncertainty might be one of the reasons the producers didn’t care to have a premiere show before being released.

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