This Friday, on March 11, 2016, new Nepali movie ‘Champion’ is released in theaters. The movie initially scheduled to release on February 26 was delayed by a couple of weeks because of a controversy surrounding an ex-actor of the movie. The Censor Board had asked them to solve the issue before it could give them the clearance.
Initially the movie was told to feature Nikhil Upreti and his wife Sanchita Luitel in leading role. But, when Nikhil couldn’t do the movie, a guy named Uddav Nepal was signed in to lead the movie. When the film team found him not suitable to do the role, they had signed in Dikpal Karki and Manjita KC to lead the movie. Other actors in the movie include Sahil Khan, JN Ghimire, Jagat Tamata, Sharada Acharya etc.
The movie scheduled to release next week, ‘Champion’ has been halted by the Censor Board after an artists lodged a complaint against the film makers. According to the report, the issue with the artist should be solved before the Board will make on the decision of granting permission.
Champion controversy background
The ‘Champion’ makers initially announced that the actors Nikhil Upreti and his wife Sanchita Luitel will be featured in the leading role. But, as the shooting time neared, Nikhil couldn’t set aside time for the shooting of the movie and they had to find another actor to lead in the movie. The producer also told that Nikhil wasn’t comfortable in being featured as a cricket player as he wasn’t much familiar with the game.
I wrote about Nikhil being replaced by Dikpal Karki in a previous post. But, now, it is apparent that there was another artist who was promised the role before Dikpal Karki was finalized. According to report, Uddav Nepal was promised the role before Dikpal. This information was revealed when Uddav lodged a complaint against the movie to the Film Development Board. In the complaint he has accused the movie producers of not paying him for the work he did and was defamed by the producers.
(Attached video report of the announcement, last month.)
The director BB Phuyal told that Uddav Nepal had told them that he was a cricket player and signed an agreement to do the leading role. But, at the time of shooting he was found not to know the game. Nepal has lodged the complaint based on the agreement document.
In an event held in Kathmandu, the promo and the posters of upcoming movie ‘Champion’ was released. In the movie made on the story of cricket players, some cricket players are also featured. In the press meet, the chief guest was the captain of the Nepali Cricket team, Paras Khadka. Talking in the ceremony, Paras requested everybody to watch the movie. In the event, the release date of the movie – February 26 (Falgun 14) was also announced.
The shooting of the upcoming movie ‘Champion’ has started in Kathmandu. The movie being made on the story of cricket player was initially supposed to feature Nikhil Upreti in leading role. We wrote about Nikhil and Sanchita Luitel to be featured together in the movie. Now, at the time of shooting, Nikhil couldn’t set aside the time for the movie and the film production team had to find another actor in his place.
According to the producer, Nikhil wasn’t familiar with cricket game and because of the promotion of his comeback movie ‘Bhairav’ he didn’t have enough time for cricket lesson. The production team has chosen ‘Rang Baijani’ debut actor Dikpal Karki to do the leading role. After being selected for the role, Dikpal has learnt and practice cricket for a long time.
Actress Sanchita Luitel to be featured opposite to Nikhil Upreti in an upcoming movie ‘Champion’. The movie to be made on the story of cricket player will feature Nikhil as the batsman. Sanchita will be featured as the girlfriend of Nikhil.
Audio report:
The movie by the director BB Phuyal will be the first movie featuring the couple together after their marriage.
Nikhil and Sanchita fell in love in the sets of ‘Maya Ta Maya Ho’. After getting married secretly, they flew to Mumbai and struggled to get into the Bollywood film industry. After a while, Sanchita returned back to Nepal and gave birth to a son in 2011 and a daughter in 2012. Nikhil stayed in Mumbai in all those years. Now, Nikhil has also returned as a director in his home production movie, ‘Bhairav’. He is also featured in an upcoming movie ‘Lootera’ (scheduled to release on August 28) and is planning the second home production movie, ‘Bajarangi’.
