“Apologies.”

That was what actress Priyanka Karki started with in a 500+ words apology letter (in English alone). She was concerned that people might min-interpret it and has also translated the whole text in Nepali language. I don’t know why she decided it was a good idea to present her thought in two languages, it is clear that she has thought about it for a long time and had taken effort to compose the statement.

Before I share Priyanka’s statement, the background information:

Actress Richa Sharma talked in a program held in Kathmandu about why she didn’t like ‘Chhakka Panja’ movie and why it was against womenkind. In response, the makers of the movie attacked Richa by accusing her of telling the viewers ‘fools’ and telling her to ‘get well soon’. There were divided views on who was right. In my Twitter poll, majority of my followers thought Richa was right and ‘Chhakka Panja’ team was wrong to attack Richa.

In response, Richa claimed that she never told the viewers were fools and she was only advocating the better representation of women in films. After Richa’s statement, Richa got all the sentiment and people went against Deepak, Deepa and ‘Chhakka Panja’ team.

[Full details on ‘Chhakka Panja’ Richa Sharma scandal.]

That is how Priyank’s statement was born.

In response to Priyanka’s response, Deepak Raj Giri wrote, “You have written it well. Everybody has made mistakes..” Here is what Priyanka wrote in Nepal (the English version follows).

Here is the the full statement of Priyanka (English):

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Apologies.

Yes maybe ‘singling’ a person out was a really mean thing to do. Totally wrong. I should have thought, actually processed everything in my mind and not just read some headlines on credible online portals before I wrote what I wrote on social media. Thinking about it now, social media is actually a very dangerous place. We react instantly. We are impulsive. We don’t have the tolerance and patience. We just rush to give our opinions. Exactly what happened with the initial news headlines and also with me. So Yes, ‘singling’ one person out was not acceptable. But then when I saw the video, it still wasn’t a very pleasant, ‘Oh such a nice analysis’ feel for me. Naming a particular movie and ‘SINGLING OUT’ a particular director to give an example of feminism (in a country where almost 150 movies are made a year) was not right either. Now that is my opinion. Yes I got hurt.

Also, when all of this started, the issue never was feminism (my opinion). So, I’m actually not sure why ‘feminism’ became an issue here.. It was about the choice of films.. And things got diverted… statements got manipulated.. I am a female and I have always stood for feminism and women issues. But the specific example given in the discussion about the movie felt incomplete (I’m talking about my character and the example given in particular). Raja says he will marry Champa if she agrees to be SLAPPED by him ever night. Champa agrees. But now, does he ever even once slap her? Abuse her? NO. In fact Champa changes the spoilt brat, makes him a better person. Champa even calls the police to stop on going women violence happening in her neighbour’s place. I guess that was a pretty strong character. Again, this is my opinion and since I played the character, I know she wasn’t an abused woman in the film.

Secondly, clarification about the whole credible news portals’ headlines where the word ‘murkha’ was used. Yes, in the particular ‘discussion’ the word Murkha was not used. Accepted and apologies again.. But Yes, the word ‘hyprocrite’ sure was used. And according to my understanding I don’t think that is a beautiful word to describe our audience now, is It? I think it’s actually even worse. Its okay to give your opinions.. but maybe not okay to call people who watch movies ‘hyprocrites’ especially when you are a part of this industry. Again that is my opinion.

Now finally to all the unnecessary people who took advantage of this sensitive situation and tried in numerous ways to add fuel to it. Now is that RIGHT? The name calling, the shaming in public, mean disrespectful comments to both the parties POURED IN like everyone was just waiting to attack both the parties. That needs to stop. We need to stop pulling each other down. What is done cannot be undone. I feel sad and sorry for the way this has been blown out of proportion and I apologize if my part in this went on to be a personal attack in any form. That was never the intention. But we can bring a stop to it now. Let’s focus on work, on creating movies, magic and let’s end this drama.
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The video report:

I will prepare an updated video in a couple of days. Stay tuned.