NEW DELHI: Alia Bhatta is joining hands with S.S Rajamouli in his next project. She is opposite to Ram Charan and Jr NTR, according to reports.
However, there was no official confirmation from the filmmakers or the actress. According to the latest reports, a source close to the development has confirmed that Alia has been roped in for the film as the female lead. The film team is very excited to work with Alia.
KATHMANDU: A short film named ‘Agnidahan’ (self-immolation) was screened in the Prime Minister’s official residence at Baluwatar, Kathmandu today which illustrates how once an alleged witch turns into a model social worker.
Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and his spouse Radhika Shakya, ministers, lawmakers and artistes among others watched the film screened on the occasion of the 109th International Women’s Day.
The 1 hour 55 minutes long-educative film based how a young foreign returnee woman was accused of practicing witchcraft by her fellow villagers in a village in Terai and how she overcame the stigma and raises awareness about this superstition.
Anupama Bhandari (played by Pramila Tulachan) in the movie returns to her hometown from the UK for two months. She becomes victim to the superstition of being a witch, but in reality she has developed a mental complication due to some unpleasant circumstances.
Upon a good medical intervention, she regains her mental health and stands up to raise awareness against witchery due to which many women, especially those from the lower strata of our society continue to be victimized.
The movie produced by the ‘Manche Bokshi Kaile Hunna’ (A person never becomes a witch) National Awareness Foundation aims to spread the message witchery is a mental illusion. It firmly believes that raising awareness against it would help eliminate this ill tradition.
Violence against women is one of the major human rights violations in Nepal and one type of violence perpetrated against women is accusing them of witchcraft.
Foundation Coordinator Mohan Raj Poudel said that the movie concludes that there still prevailed the ill tradition of witchcraft due to lack of awareness among people.
The persecution and killing of women, especially elderly and single ones, in the name of practicing witchcraft is still prevalent in most of the eastern and western parts of the Terai region in the country.
The movie was produced at the cost of Rs 10 million while around Rs 5 million has already been spent for raising awareness through screening of this movie in various places across the country.
Written by Lokmani Poudel and directed by Ghanashyam Lamichhane, the movie launched by President Bidya Devi Bhandari some two years ago.
After watching the movie, PM Oli and his spouse grew emotional. They held discussions with the film crew for a while, too. Plans are afoot to dub the movie in Bhojpuri and Maithali languages to reach out to the wider audiences.
Lawmakers Bishnu Sharma, Udaya Sharma and Bina Budhathoki among others unequivocally voiced for coordinated efforts to raise awareness against this ill tradition and to eradicate it.
The Anti-witchcraft (Crime and Punishment) Act-2014 stipulates stringent actions against those involved in the inhumane treatment of women accused of practicing witchcraft.
According to the Act, the perpetrators of such act may be fined up to Rs 100,000 along with a jail sentence of up to 10 years.
The 91st edition of the Oscars is at our doorstep, finally. Most of the world’s eyes are on the Oscar’s winners. The nominees hearts’ are beating fast and looking for the announcement. The grand finale of the Oscar will begin at 6:45 am on Monday (February 25). Live coverage of the red-carpet festivities will start at 5:45 am.
Best Picture
Actor in a Leading Role
Actress in a Leading Role
Actress in a Supporting Role
Actor in a Supporting Role
Directing
Adapted Screenplay
Original Screenplay
Foreign Language Film
Animated Feature
Original Score
Original Song
Documentary Short
Cinematography
Best Documentary Feature
Production Design
Sound Mixing
Costume Design
Film Editing
Sound Editing
Animated Short Film
Live Action Short
Makeup and Hairstyling
Visual Effects
(Agencies)
Directed by Manchhiring Tamang, documentary ‘A Day in the Life of a Himalayan Shepherd’ is based on the day of a shepherd of a northernmost part of Nepal’s Dhading district.
The documentary focuses on a Tamang community; an ethnic group that depends on cattle rearing for the last three centuries.
The film features shepherd from this culturally rich community who is in dilemma whether to ask his children to continue his profession or to let them find opportunities elsewhere.
The documentary will be shown at the 2019 Colony Short Film Festival beginning March 1 in Ohio.
Today is February 14. The world is celebrating Valentine’s Day (Saint Valentine’s Day) with loved their ones. If you are planning to stay at home or planning to spare your time with your loved one’s, here are some selected movies that you can make your time romantic.
1. Love Actually
2. The Notebook
3. An Affair to Remember
4. When Harry Met Sally
5. Sleepless in Seattle
Source: Agencies
Here is the list of 10 movies you must watch. The movies listed below cover a wide range of subjects. The movies definitely give you entertainments. Further, they provide you the ideas of history, culture, love, betrayed, actions and other wide subjects.
1. Roma
2. BlackKkKlansman
3. Burning
4. Monrovia, Indianna
5. Colophon (for the Arboretum Cycle)
6. Shoplifters
7. The Death of Stalin
8. Zama
9. Happy as Lazzaro
10. First Reformed
KATHMANDU: Chairperson of Film Development Board (FDB), Nikita Poudel, resigned from the post on Tuesday.
Chairperson Poudel said she submitted her resignation to Minister for Communications and Information Technology, Gokul Prasad Baskota, to be effective from today. She said that she would be devoted to social service in the days ahead. Poudel was appointed Chairperson of the Board on December 11, 2017.
Nepali films have been an integral part of Nepali culture, and reflect the country’s culture, society, concerns, history, beliefs, and natural beauty. Though films influence the mass culture, they also keep changing from one era to another. In one sense, Nepali movies, which have served as records of the eras, could be characterized as the country’s storytellers since they reflect commonly held attitudes and beliefs about the Nepali culture, besides portraying contemporary trends and events.
For example, a film like Himalaya produced in 1999, was the first Nepali film to receive an Academy Award nomination for the Best Foreign Film. Directed by French director and photographer Eric Valli, this film focuses on a group of villagers, in a remote village of Dolpo in far-western Nepal, who are known to make annual treks with a caravan of yaks to trade salt for grain. Shot exclusively on the rough mountain terrains of Dolpo, this film nominated for the 72nd annual Oscar Awards 2000, basically portrays the life of salt traders who lead yak caravans along a long and difficult trek across the Himalayas to Tibet. The film also depicts the bitter life of the mountain people and their strange rituals.
The other movie that reflects Nepali life and culture is Even When I Fall, which follows the lives of performers in a circus, who had been trafficked into Indian circuses as young children. British directors Sky Neal and Kate McLarnon worked with the circus for over six years and narrated the story through two female performers, Sheetal and Saraswoti, each with their own heart-breaking stories. According to this expose, each year, 10,000 children are abducted or sold to Indian circuses. They train and perform under harsh and abusive conditions, rarely (if ever) see their families and lose out on a proper childhood. The film was released in 2017.
Seto Surya is another movie that reflects the psychology of remote Nepali village folks when the protagonist, an anti-regime secessionist, had to undergo social, physical and political obstacles after he returns to his village for his father’s funeral. Screened at the Venice Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival, the film directed by Deepak Rauniyar, has tried to show that even 10 years after the end of Nepal’s Maoist insurgency, the scars and divisions it caused have not been forgotten.
Another film that reflects the Nepali society is Red Monsoon directed by Eelum Dixit in 2014. The film there’s the promiscuous, trouble-making middle-aged neighbor, the abusive father, the comic servant, the abused daughter-in-law, the loving but over-protective father and the disgraced daughter who elopes with a man of her choice. But, things don’t quite turn out as they would in a Bollywood film.
Katmandu, A Mirror in the Sky (2011)
Spanish director Iciar Bollain captures the life of Laia, a young teacher and social worker who, like so many real-life travelers, arrives in Kathmandu full of idealism, but soon finds out how hard it is to make a difference within a broken system. She marries a Nepali man so she can stay in the country and continue her work in the slums of Kathmandu, soon finding herself falling in love with him for real. Although a Spanish production, the film is in English and Nepali.
Who Will Be a Gurkha (2012)
Nepal’s most famous export is its Gurkha soldiers, who have been recruited into a special regiment of the British army for over 200 years. Young men are enlisted from around Nepal in a rigorous six-month selection process. Earning a place in the Gurka regiment not only brings the selected prestige, it also gives them a British salary and the chance to travel the world. Who Will Be a Gurkha, a documentary film by Nepali director Kesang Tseten, follows this stringent three-phase selection process.
The Sari Soldiers (2008)
The Sari Soldiers, directed by Julie Bridgham, follows six women who were deeply involved in Nepal’s civil war in various ways: Devi, whose daughter was kidnapped by the Royal Nepal Army; Kranti, a Maoist commander; Rajani, a Royal Nepal Army officer; Krishna, a monarchist; Mandira, a human rights lawyer; and Ram Kumari, a pro-democracy student activist. It shows that even in a country as patriarchal as Nepal, women are not mere bystanders in society.
Highway to Dhampus (2014)
Highway to Dhampus, directed by Rick McFarland, was the first feature-length film to have been shot almost entirely in Nepal by an American crew against the beautiful backdrop of the country’s mountains. The story revolves around foreigners Elizabeth and Colt, who visit an isolated orphanage in the mountains, supposedly to do charitable work. However, their intentions are not what they first seem. The film takes this plot and goes on to reflect the lives of ordinary people living an ordinary life while answering questions about love, giving and making a difference.
Everest (2015)
Everest, directed by Baltasar Kormákur, is based on the book Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer, which, many claim, was far more superior. It recounts the disastrous Everest expedition that Krakauer and a group of foreign and Nepali climbers embarked on in 1996, when eight of them, including the expedition leader, was killed. The book is certainly more nuanced than the film, which was criticized for erasing the important roles of the Sherpa people, a major ethnic group in Nepal, during the expedition. Although the movie has its fair share of problems, adventure film buffs may appreciate it just for the subject.
Sherpa (2015)
If mainstream Hollywood has been guilty of sidelining the Sherpa people who are essential to the lucrative Everest-climbing industry, Sherpa recenters them. Australian filmmaker Jennifer Peedom got the idea for the documentary after hearing about the violent confrontations between Sherpas and foreign climbers in 2013. She filmed it during the 2014 climbing season, during which an avalanche killed 16 Sherpas, and was – until the earthquakes the following year – the deadliest day on the mountain. The film focuses on Phurba Tashi, a Sherpa who had scaled Mt Everest 21 times but was under pressure from his family to retire due to the high risks involved.
(Compiled from Agencies)
Kangana Ranaut’s Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi has received spectacular response at the box-office. The biographical period drama, on Sunday, added Rs 15.70 crore more to its kitty. Its total collection, after the opening-weekend run, stands at Rs 42.55 crore.
According to film critic and trade analyst Taran Adarsh, the film is registering its best performance in Delhi-NCR, UP, Punjab and Rajasthan. Keeping in view the current trend, Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi will continue its sparkling performance during the weekdays. Of course, there will be the usual decline in collections but that will not stop the film from packing a respectable first-week total.
At the box-office, Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi is battling against the Nawazuddin Siqqiqui-starrer Thackeray. It is also facing cut-throat competition from the Vicky Kaushal-starrer Uri: The Surgical Strike that hit the screens on January 11.
Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi, as the name suggests, is based on the life of Rani Lakshmibai of Jhansi and her struggle to gain India independence from the ruthless British rule. It also stars Atul Kulkarni, Jisshu Sengupta, Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub and Ankita Lokhande in important roles, among others. Upon its release on January 25, the film received mostly positive reviews. The word of mouth, too, has been equally good. It is jointly directed by Krish and Kangana.
Ever since the trailer of Gully Boy dropped on the web, fans have been buzzing about Ranveer Singh and his astounding portrayal of a rapper. While the makers have already revealed two songs of the film, including Apna Time Ayega and Mere Gully Mein, which are already a hit among fans, now, the latest song from the film has also just dropped and we have to tell you that it is heartbreaking.
In the latest song titled Doori, Ranveer Singh character, raps his way to ask intriguing questions about everything wrong with the country and discusses serious societal issues. Despite being heartbreaking, the song is immensely powerful and has Ranveer’s character asking relevant questions. The rhythm is mellow but the questions are relevant.
(Agencies)