South Asian Business news and information

Since its inception, movie has remained one of the major sources of entertainment to the people all around the world. Today, people of all the countries watch movies and almost all the countries of the world have their own movie industries. The problem is that there are not too many countries with a successful movie industry. At present, America has the most successful movie making industry; Hollywood. After Hollywood, comes the Indian Cinema or Bollywood. Bollywood movies are popular in many South Asian countries including Nepal. This heavy popularity of Bollywood movies has caused serious damage to Nepalese film industry.

Nepalese Movie Industry a brief overview:

Nepal Movie Industry has been operating for more than fifty years but these fifty years were not very smooth. Below are provided some of the major problems of Nepal film Industry:

1) From the beginning, Nepalese movie industry has been facing serious competition from Indian movie industry. In comparison with Bollywood in terms of quality, quantity, technical equipments and know-hows, Nepalese movie industry is Goliath. Every time it is fighting against a DAVID named “BOLLYWOOD”. The outcome is, Nepalese movie makers ending up imitating Bollywood movies.  

2) I came across this interview of Uddhav Poudel, famous Nepalese producer, published in January, in eKantipur. According to him, Nepal movie market demands 150 movies per year. Five years earlier, the condition of the movie industry was quite well. It produced 55 movies per year. Now the number has taken a nose dive between 12 and 15.

3) There were 450 cinema halls out of which 200 are operating at present. The poor economic condition of the country is the major factor behind this.   

4) At present, investment per movie is between Rs. 3 million and 10 million, which is higher compared to the past. However, the present day movies do not have very good collection. The most successful movie of Nepal was Darpan Chaya. Released eight years ago, this movie made a collection 20 million rupees. Now, the successful movies can not even collect 10 million rupees.

5) Form vs. Content, a major source of controversy and disagreement among Nepalese film makers for identity creation in the movies. Some film makers think that in order to give Nepali movies a unique outlook, they should focus on the making of the movie. Other movie makers argue that in order make a movie that translates Nepal’s culture and tradition on the screen, a good story is the most necessary thing. 

6) Another major problem is lack of equipments and people with technical know-hows. In the past, to record songs, a singer had to go to India. Now many music studios have sprung up in Nepal. Still, these studios are not of that high quality. India is still preferred by the movie makers. In the earlier days, Nepali film makers had to hire cameraman, dance director, make-up man from India. Now this trend has changed.

7) Editing, dubbing, mixing and other works were done in India. Now, the newly developed Nepal Film Development Company Ltd. has all the technical facilities. Still there are many problems.

It is true that the scenario has changed a lot in the film industry of Nepal but there are many things need to be done. The major challenge in film making is that it is a creative process and takes a lot of time to rich to the point of maturity. In order to reach that point there is no alternative to skill, hard work and dedication. Nepal does not have many well trained actors, and film makers. So the first thing for survival is to build up a pool of skilled actors, directors and producers. Second, movie makers should always try to experience with new ideas and concepts. It would help them to keep the attention of the audience. From now on, Nepalese movie makers have to try to think out of the box.