NATIONAL 4 - (Spotlight Weekly)

‘Get-Rich-Quick Attitude Ruining Nepal's Film Industry’

— NIR BIKRAM SHAH

NIR BIKRAM SHAH is a renowned director of Nepal's growing film industry. A reputable businessman who runs the Shangrila Channel network, Shah is also regarded as one of the few quality actors Nepalese cinema can boast of. Currently, he is the president of Nepalese Film Producers' Association. He is also known for his pioneering guidance to Nepal Television, where he served as general manager for many years. Shah spoke to SANJAYA DHAKAL on different facets of Nepal's entertainment industry. Excerpts:

How do you evaluate the current state of Nepal's entertainment sector?

Entertainment as an industry was progressing relatively well until the country faced security problems. Entertainment does not come high on the people's priority list. And from the viewpoint of consumers, it seems that people do not have spare money to spend on entertainment. Even if they have money, they would rather spend it on food, shelter and clothing. Consumers cannot be blamed for this. Unless the country regains stability, there can be no solution. When the country is not doing well, its diverse sectors suffer, too. There may be some differences in the levels of failures of each sector, but all go down when country goes down. With country regaining stability, probably all sectors will bounce back.

Nepalese films are often described as cheap imitations of Bollywood productions. What do you say?

In every sector, after a certain level of growth, there is an inclination to make quick money. Earlier, when there was no prospect of making money from films, people produced films. They started this industry from zero and brought it to the point where it is today. But newcomers had less of an "ours" attitude. They turned out to be selfish. They forgot that when the film industry profits, they would also profit individually. Unfortunately, the numbers of such self-centered people grew, leading to the present situation where we rarely find quality Nepalese films. The need of the hour is quality films. However, this is not possible from people with such a mindset. They make films for, say, Rs 5 million and earn half a million. If they make two films a year, they will be making a million rupees, which is not a small income in our context. This get-rich-quick attitude is eating up the industry. If we do not make quality movies, the industry will surely go down. We have expert technicians, capital and artistes who can act at par with their Hollywood or Bollywood counterparts. What we do not have is technology. We should be able to make use of latest technologies. We also seriously lack people who can write original Nepalese scripts and stories. If these are in place, it would not be difficult to make quality movies.

There are many Nepalese television channels today. How far has the film sector contributed to their programming needs?

All the channels have indicated their willingness to show Nepalese programs. There is a big demand for Nepalese programs. The largest television channel, Nepal Television (NTV), 60-65 percent of whose programs are in Nepali, draws 75 percent of its content from the film sector. The film and entertainment sector is a major part of the print, audio and video media. You cannot imagine newspapers, FM radio and television programs without contributions from film sector. Newspapers devote pages and radio/TV spend hours on such programs. The government has given different facilities like flexible tax policy to help the film sector. However, we have not been able to strengthen the sector in keeping with these facilities.

Why have stage performances slackened lately?

This is a problem that has global dimensions. Definitely, the stage has suffered from the invasion of television all around the world. I think the time now has come for us to stop limiting stage deliberations and dramatics to auditoriums alone. As everything is guided by basic economic policies, we have to seek the people's support for theater's upliftment. In a country like ours, it is not possible for the government to earmark millions of rupees for the development of the stage. There are other more pressing priorities. What we can do is give new lease of life to theaters by seeking the help of television. Look at how sports events and beauty pageants have progressed by taking help of television. Without losing the basic element of theater dramatics, we can show it via television to a wider audience.

How do you evaluate the domestic market share of Nepalese films?

The market for Nepalese films has grown significantly, comprising around 65 percent of the total share. However, there is no reason to take pride. Their share has increased not because people like Nepalese films more than Indian ones, but because it is expensive for distributors to bring in Indian movies. Importing fresh Indian films has stopped making economic sense to our distributors, who have now turned towards Nepalese ones. Some of these distributors have even started producing Nepalese films. This is the reason we see so many Nepalese films being shown. Anyway, the end result is that our own films are gaining more audience. Unfortunately, however, we now have a situation where Nepalese producers are pitted against their fellow citizens. Although turnover has grown, it is heavily divided. Individual production houses are suffering because they have to be content with a smaller chunk of the pie. This is not a scenario we had looked forward to. Again, we need to make quality cinema. Instead of four entities making sub-standard films for Rs 5 million each, a single producer should make a quality film for Rs 20 million. We have a market for such films. It is necessary to discourage the trend of making films where a handful of people decide to invest a couple of million, choose their own artistes and director and throw the film to the people. We have to encourage quality production. We don't need 50 films with small investment, only 10 with big investment is enough. But all this can happen only when the country is stable.

What are your upcoming projects?

Right now, I have three scripts ready. One is "Nabhana Malai Narou", another is "Paisa Paisa" and the third is "Euta Gharko Katha". All are based on social subjects. I hope to start "Euta Gharko Katha" first. But I cannot do it in these abnormal circumstances.

You made "Basanti" which was based on a historical subject. Were you satisfied with the film?

As far as public response was concerned, the film did an average business. I neither made money nor lost from that film. But, definitely, I was not satisfied with the technical format in which I had to make the film. I have always said that we need to go for cinemascope films. We should be trying to use all kinds of facilities that are available in this part of the world. Just look at the Indian film sector. It is big industry with reaches across the world. Many of our directors/producers make regular trips to Mumbai in connection their films. They should be learning lessons from Bollywood. Unfortunately, we seem to have learned only their negative aspects. We tend to forget the hard work they have put in order to make Bollywood such a dynamic industry.

You were a co-producer of Oscar-nominated "Caravan". How did it feel to represent the country at the Oscars? Is the "Caravan" team making similar films in the future?

It felt great to be representing the country at the Oscars. When I put my feet on the Shrine Auditorium, I felt as if the moment was the reward for my lifetime involvement in the Nepalese film sector. It would have been better had I been representing a film made fully by Nepalese people. Nevertheless, the feeling was great. The team that made "Caravan" is still together. Though I hardly invest any money, I am still included in the team out of sentiments and the feeling that we were so successful. The team is intact but it is not making films here. Currently the team is making a film in Egypt.

How is your project at Shangrila Channel going on?

Shangrila Channel suffered because of piracy. But now we have decided to make changes in our network. We will shortly be offering 20-channel program through the wireless network. This time we have introduced encryption technology based on smart cards system. We are confident that pirates won't be able to affect us anymore. Besides, we plan to show as many Nepalese channels as possible. We have invited interested private parties to produce Nepalese channels and show it. We are paying tens of millions of rupees every year to Pay-TV channels through subscribers. If we invest that money here, we could easily make quality films. Anyway, we are going to start from scratch.