Nigam Shrestha debuted as a director in his upcoming movie ‘Chadke’, scheduled to release this Friday. He had worked as an assistant director in one of the most popular movies of modern time, ‘Loot‘ and has repeated some of the casts of the movie in his debut movie. Raunak Niraula had recently talked to Nigam about his movie:

Q – Tell us something about your first directed movie ”Chadke”.

Nigam Shrestha – ‘Chadke’ is a story of gangsters of Chitwan. ‘Chadke’ is a thriller movie and also related to environment of Nepal . In short ‘Chadke’ is a movie that is made to entertain the audiences.

Q – Can you share how the journey of ‘Chadke’ started?

Nigam Shrestha -I was working as an assistant director on the movie ‘Loot’. During that time, producer Madhav Wagle showed interest to work with me in future. I had two feature movie stories out of them, the producer selected the story of ‘Chadke’. That is how the journey of ‘Chadke’ began.

Q – ‘Chadke’ features Namrata Shrestha in a completely new look and in a different character. Another unexpected feature is the rock singer Robin Tamang in a leading role. How did you get such ideas?

Nigam Shrestha -I don’t take credit for it all. It was actually the idea of my team. We had planned to bring Robin Tamang in a movie even before the concept of ”Chadke” was discussed. When the character in this movie was found to be suitable to his personality, we approached him for the movie.

Q – You worked in Loot as an assistant director. ‘Chadke’ is also made with similar theme like ‘Loot’. No glamorous actress, no romantic songs, no romance or family drama. Movie is all about gangsters and youth’s action. Any especial reason or co-incidence?

Nigam Shrestha -This is just a co-incidence because every story has its own nature and story of ‘Chadke’ doesn’t demands any of those mentioned in above. ‘Chadke’ is about the story of Gangsters, how our youths from our society forms gang and do such bad deeds. If the story of ‘Chadke’ demands such things than we would have surely include them.

Q – How have you perceived the response from audiences before its release?

Nigam Shrestha -Responses from promotional matters is very good. It’s much more than what I had expected.

Q – As a student of film studies, how do you find ‘Chadke’ as a movie, in terms of technology and contents?

Nigam Shrestha – ‘Chadke’ has three very strong aspects. First one is its content. ‘Chadke”s story and screenplay is strong and we have worked very hard on it. Second one is performance. Each actor has performed very well. They have portrayed their character effectively. And third one is its music and background music. Music of ‘Chadke’ reflects the Nepali tune and flavors. We have tried to use Nepali instruments and music of Nepali flavor in the movie. These are the three aspects that has made it a very good movie and I hope, audiences will love it as much as we do.

Q – ‘Loot’ had done an unexpected business. Do you think ‘Chadke’ will repeat it or be even better in terms of collection?

Nigam Shrestha – All I know is, I have worked very hard in this movie and with me, each and every one from the team has given his best. But, I don’t have any idea about the business and marketing. My work is to make a good movie and leave it to the audience. So, I haven’t really thought about business.

Q – In your view, what is a single good thing of Nepali film industry and and a single bad thing you had experienced while making ‘Chadke’?

Nigam Shrestha – The good thing is, we have a very rich content. Out of many good stories in our society, that can be useful to make a good, this is one. And talking about bad thing, we lack a system by which movies are made. Everything inside film industry should be performed in a systematic way so that working is easy.

Q – Do you think ‘Chadke’ deserves the adult certificate ‘Chadke’ got ?

Nigam Shrestha – The Censor Board has deleted a few scenes of the movie. The reason ”Chadke” got an adult certificate is because of a few words used by the characters in the movie. But, I can assure that we haven’t used any such vulgar words out of context. Those words are commonly used in society and are usually heard in streets.

Q – Do you think the censor certificate will have any effect in its business ?

Nigam Shrestha – I don’t have any idea on this. May be the producers can answer the question.

Q – At last, what do you want to tell our audience?

Nigam Shrestha – Our team has worked very hard and we have tried our best to bring a good movie for you. Go and watch and please do comment. Thank you.