Unlike Hollywood and Bollywood, Kollywood does not have a very long history. The cinema market is not encouraging enough to establish Nepal’s film fraternity as a successful industry and at the same time Nepali movies are not on a par with international films. Despite missing the mark, K-town movies come a long way.
For the first time in 1951 audiences in Nepal got to watch a full-fledged motion picture in their own language with “Satya Harischandra”, which was made in India. When “Aama” became the first film to be produced within the country after a hiatus of 13 years in 1964, the number increased gradually every year. Slowly and steadily, Nepali films won over audiences. There only not many releases annually, but the few and far between numbers used to do fine, both critically and financially. From “Kusume Rumal” to “Prem Pinda”, “Basudev” to “Darpanchaya”, Nepali films, to a large extent, were able to entertain audiences even with its limited human and technical resources.
But problems arose when too many films hit the market and the filmmakers could not move with the times. One film after another, almost two sides of the same coin, leave a bad taste in audiences’ mouth, leading to further deterioration of the already struggling film market. After more than six decades of its evolvement, the film market has gone slow in terms of audiences and content. The connection between audiences and films seems to be missing out somewhere.
“We can’t blame the audiences for this. Moviegoers have always watched and praised good films. But we [filmmakers] are lagging behind,” says director Deepa Basnet, whose debut directorial venture “Anataral” was highly acclaimed by many critics, but failed to bring the audiences to the theatres.
She says the fact that some of the films could not live up to the hype and expectations decreased the number of audiences.
According to reports, the Film Development Board was all set to declare ‘emergency’ considering the poor condition of Nepali films in early 2012. In the meantime, Nishcal Basnet’s “Loot” was released and all of a sudden, things started looking better. The film was a huge hit and it also replaced many shows of Bollywood and Hollywood films. “Loot” proved that the audiences want to watch good Nepali films. Another blockbuster “Chapali Height” created quite a buzz and garnered impressive number of audiences.
Similarly, Deepak Rauniyar’s “Highway” got selected in the Berlin Film Festival, which opened a new window in the international arena. “After that there has not been any remarkable development. Similar kinds of films came to the market again and vulgarity dominated film contents, which is a very sad part,” adds Deepa. She says ‘supply more than demand’ has also been a consistent problem in the Nepali film market. “Filmmakers are focused on quantity rather than quality. Yes, some good films have been released lately, but have been unfortunately overshadowed by those not-good films,” she says.
Bishal Shrestha, living at Shanti Nagar in the Capital, who watches Nepali films every now and then, has similar opinions. “Recently, I watched “Uma”, “Sanghuro”, “Antaraal” and “Dhanda” and I liked all of them. But it was quite disheartening to see that there were not too many people at the theatre,” he says. He thinks some of the much vaunted films like “Chhadke” and “Badhshala” were not as good as the audiences thought they would be. “After “Chaddke”, I decided to hold back and think before investing my money,” says Shrestha.
Veteran director Tulsi Ghimire, who has classics like “Chino”, “Balidaan” and “Dakhsina” to his credits, says there is big difference between Nepali films and audiences. “Recent films, claimed to be ‘out of mainstream films’, with absurd dialogues and vulgar scenes are making the difference even larger. Also the stakeholders are not skilful and visionary, which makes our future insecure and dark,” says Ghimire. He says the Nepali films today are not even able to touch the heart of the audiences and the reach to the international arena is just a fantasy. “Today, the technology has made things so much easier that anyone with a little knowledge wants to make a film, which is the saddest part,” he says.
However, “Loot” director Nischal Basnet feels that it is too early to be pessimistic. “We are just in the transitional phase and better days will come soon. Today, new and young filmmakers do not hesitate to experiment and take a risk, which is always a welcome change,” he says. He adds that the culture of watching Nepali films is yet to be developed and if good films are made, the situation will change for sure.“Audiences pay for films and they want a better product,” he says. “Why would they want to watch a bad film when so many options are available in the market?” According to Deepa, everyone associated with the films must work together for a better tomorrow. “The Nepal government, filmmakers and audiences, all should support each other. Otherwise, about 120 films releasing annually, without any research and strong content, will only increase the number and degrade the quality,” she says.
Ghimire also has a similar opinion. “The whole system has to be changed. The films being made should be categorised and the box office system should be introduced,” he says. “If the Government really wants the industry to flourish and grow, it should be serious now and start encouraging good films and filmmakers. Otherwise, we are heading nowhere,” he says.
No comments:
Post a Comment