Nepali Film industry suffers as India blocks petroleum

Because of the shortage in petroleum after India blocked the tankers from entering Nepal at the border, Nepali film industry has suffered a lot. As the vehicular movement is restricted in Nepal, the release of new movies have been canceled and film shooting have been delayed.

‘Destination Kathmandu’ release canceled

According to reports, the movie scheduled to release this Friday – ‘Destination Kathmandu’ has been canceled at the last minute. According to the executive director Madhusudhan Bhattarai, director Deepak Rayamajhi‘s last movie will not release on October 2 as planned before. The movie featuring Dilip Rayamajhi and Jharana Thapa in leading role was halted for a while after the death of the director Deepak Rayamajhi in 2011. Later, Madhusudhan had completed the movie.

This is the second time the movie release has been postponed. Previously the movie was scheduled to release on May 8 but, because of the earthquake of April 25, the movie release was delayed.

The movie previously released in Kathmandu, ‘Woda Number Chha’ is going to release in theaters out of Kathmandu on this Friday.

Shooting halted

Because of the problem in transportation, the shooting of Bhuwan KC‘s debut movie as the director, ‘Dreams’ shooting has also been affected. The resumption of the shooting of Bhuwan’s song Anmol KC starrer movie is uncertain.

The shooting of Aryan Sigdel movie ‘Classic’ has also been halted because of the problem caused by Indian blockage. The movie featuring Aryan with Namrata Shrestha is directed by Dinesh Raut and is produced by the team that had produced the successful movie ‘November Rain’ (watch ‘November Rain’ here.)

Theaters face threat of closure

The theaters facing problem because of load shedding have faced a new problem because of the shortage of diesel. The theaters have been depending on diesel-run generators for the movie shows. The shortage of diesel can cause the closure.

Earlier, Bollywood movies have been taken off-screen and Nepali movies are being screened in protest of the problem at the border. Such an action was expected to help Nepali movies because of the lack of competition from Hindi movie. If theaters couldn’t run because of the lack of diesel, that benefit would also be nullified.

India problem

Indian government is not happy that the Constitution of Nepal 2072 was passed by the parliament without incorporating its demands. At the time when the constitution was finalized, the political parties in the Terai regions were protesting with their own demands. India had sent its Foreign Secretary to delay the finalization of the constitution at the last minute, after everything was finalized. Although the new constitution was approved by the majority, almost ninety percent of the CA members, India thinks the voice of the people in Terai wasn’t incorporated in it.

Indian media published a 7-points demands by the Indian government to be incorporated in the Constitution. When voices on interference by India in Nepal’s internal affairs, India told that the demand’s were not India’s but that of protesting parties in Terai/Madhesh. In protest, India stopped the supply of petroleum to Nepal. Being landlocked by India and China, India is the only route of supply of materials to Nepal. The roads to China borders were damaged by earthquake and haven’t been open till now.

It is no secret that Nepal heavily depends on the supply of day-to-day use materials from India. Life would be tough in Nepal if this situation continues for long.

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