Entertainment

There was a time when a singer like Tara Devi had to either go to Calcutta or Bombay to have her songs recorded. However, she had another choice at home – sing live at the Radio Nepal studio. But it’s not so any more. Today’s singers can choose any studio they want to record their songs without going to India for the same purpose.

During fifties and sixties, investment in this field came neither from the private sector nor from the government. Consequently, people had no choice but to pay a visit to India to get their things done.

The field of music, which engulfs a large part of the entertainment industry, has over the years witnessed a sea change in its scope. The establishment of Ratna Recording Corporation thirty years ago, now amalgamated with Radio Nepal, saw the birth of a music recording company in Nepal. Unfortunately, the organization had to be shut due to various reasons pertaining to quality. However, the untimely death of Ratna Recording did not mark the full stop in the recording studio business. Thanks to private sector initiation, recording studios began coming up in the country. As a result, the Kathmandu valley alone at the present houses over three dozen of such studios. Apart from the Kathmandu valley, a galore of recording studios are also found in other major towns and cities of the kingdom. It is therefore not at all surprising to know that a new audio album is released every other day in Nepal. And, since these studios are busy with various other recording activities as well such as jingle, they are making money out of recording business. Surprisingly, however, these studios are said to be lacking in quality and henceforth the tradition of crossing the border for better recording quality for film songs has continued to exist. Recording of Ram Krishna Dhakal and Yum Baral’s new albums ‘Aroha’ and ‘Asha’, and ‘Man’ respectively in India proves this point true. Says musician Sambhujit Baskota, "The studios here may not complement the standards of those in Mumbai. At the same time they are not incapable."

Shooting of the film is another key area of film making. Presently, there are seven or eight cameras in all that use 16 mm negative films. However, there are no cameras in Nepal equipped to shoot cinema-scope movies. That’s why the Nepal Film Development Company Ltd. (NFDC) had to borrow one such camera from an Indian production company for ‘Mahili’. Apart from this, numeric and betacam cameras can be found in plentiful.

As far as technical aspect is concerned, Nepal doesn’t need to depend fully on India. The NFDC (called the Royal Nepal Film Development Corporation prior to being privatized), develops the film after completion of the shooting. It also takes up the responsibility of preparing final print for screening of the movie. Negative processing, editing, dubbing and mixing, and printing are the other activities carried out by the NFDC. Film experts nonetheless say that now almost all aspects of film-making can be done right here in Nepal. However, after completion of dubbing, film producers prefer to go to Mumbai for mixing. "There is no need for us to go to India," contradicts Bhim Rana, the technical director at NFDC.

With ‘Pratiksha’ (2050 BS), it’s proved that a film could be produced in Nepal itself. A dozen or so movies produced after that stress the point further. But while some film makers say that ‘track’ for mixing the film is not available here, some others complain that it is time consuming to get all technical aspects completed in Nepal, which further compels film makers to go to India for speedy work.. Since the last four years, NFDC has also made available a shooting studio where different sets can be put up for shooting. But, of course, unlike those in foreign countries, the NFDC studio is not yet well equipped to suit all kinds of scenes required by a movie. Nepal Studio has also been set up where various technical activities can be carried out. But although the studio facilitates song recording, editing and dubbing, cinema makers still have to go to India for mixing.

It can be said, however, that the Nepali film industry, which was fully dependant on the Indian film industry 50 years ago, is now self-sufficient to a great extent. Earlier, Nepali film makers had to look across the border for all kinds of technical manpower including cameraman, dance director and make-up man. Apart from Tulsi Ghimire, make-up man Sambha D Patil and cameraman Chandra Prakash Ghimire also come from India but they have chosen to stay in the Nepali film industry since the very beginning. Moreover, Tulsi Ghimire and company can not be referred to as Indian technicians since they had come to Nepal to establish their career and not on a pay basis.

Japanese company Kodak’s 16 mm negative films are used for shooting Nepali films. Since one of the major investor in Kodak’s dealer, Photo Concern, as well as in NFDC happens to be the same individual, NFDC does not work on movies that use films of other companies like Konica or Fuji.

And although the Nepal film industry has to rely for its raw materials on foreign countries, as far as manpower goes, it is self-sufficient.

Translated by Navin

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Kollywood : Self-sufficient?

Although conversations regarding films are almost always confined to the lead artiste or the storyline of the film, obviously the basic infrastructure of the industry is of utmost importance. How well equipped is the Nepali film industry in this respect ? Ananta Wagle tries to find out

Translated by Navin

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		Vol. 2 :: No. 09 August, 2000 (Shrawan-Bhadra)
Entertainment