2066 - Quick Recap

Well, every year Nepali Cine Sansar seems to be just growing bigger and bigger. Treading back the history of Nepali Cinema [1,2,3], it seems we have come a long way. Not just from village to valley story, but in terms of technicality, costume, make up, cinematography and stunts, etc. Without any official box office records being maintained, its bit difficult to pin point which movies worked and which not. Who made greens and who lost ?
Anyway national daily Kantipur had done a quick survey with some of the biggest distributors and cinema hall owners regarding the business of the movies released in 2066. The result was quite astonishing !

Out of 42 movies released this year (both within valley and outside valley), only 10 movies were tagged as successful; from Blockbuster to Hit. Though whenever a movie is released all producers and cinema owners claims the movie is running successfully, only 10 movie were found to have hit bully eyes this year. Out of 10 movies, only one movie could be tagged as Blockbuster this year. Kaha Bhetiyela, the comeback movie of Shrikrishna Shrestha was the only movie which made huge profit.

Produced by the actor himself, Shrikrishna Shrestha made a comeback after long hiatus with Kaha Bhetiyela. He invested around 8.1 Million Rupees and got handsome return of over 7 Million from within the valley itself. Another 10 Million came from rest of circuits within the country. He is also planning for some international shows of the movie in coming months in selected locales in USA, UK, Germany, Australia and Middle East which will still add more profit to the actor/producer. After grand success of ‘Ma Timi Bina Marihalchu’ in the international circuit in 2065, producers have geared up to harness from international market too from Nepali daispora. Directed by Shiva Regmi, the movie also starred Shweta Khadka, Nir Shah, Nir Shah, Mithila Sharma, etc. Movie revolving around search of true love also had Niruta Singh, Sanchita Luintel, Garima Pant as guest stars.

Another comeback was made by producer/director Rishi Lamichane, whose debut movie ‘Kahin Milan Kahin Bichod’ bombed miserably five years ago. After working on mega tv soap - Parichaya, he made successful comeback with ‘Afno Manche Afnai Huncha’.

Surprise hit movie of the year would be ‘Ekku - The Junlge Man‘. The movie made with normal video camera, when screened on the silver screen instantly got thunderous response leaving behind most multi-million ruppees movies. Starting ‘Mari Bassai’ fame Suleman Shankar portraying the character of jungle man - Ekku, the movie became very much popular with the kids.

2066 also saw huge flooding of movies with Rajesh Hamal, Biraj Bhatta, Nikhil Uperty as guest stars. Though these actors would appear in a minuscule role in the movie, marketing would be done by selling these popular faces on the posters. There were many sequels which fared poorly this year; Kusume Rumal - 2, Paapi Manche - 2, Karing Gang - 2, etc couldn’t deliver as its first version. Even movies with titles copied from popular oldies flopped at the box office this year. Movies like ‘The Yug Dekhi Yug Saama’, ‘Samjhana’, ‘Daag’, etc could live up to the expectation.

Titles copied from Bollywood like Dhoom, Farz, Rakshak, Mahan, Takkar, etc also couldn’t bring in success this year. Technically, the movie shooting moved from normal celluloid to digital technology. Screening also took giant leap using UFO, Cube technology which helped distributors to screen movies simultaneously in multiple screens at the same time.

1. Kahan Bhetiyala
2. Afno Mache Afnai Huncha
3. Batuli
4. Ekku - The Jungle Man
5. Mero Euta Saathi Cha
6. Kahan Chau Kahan
7. Nishana
8. Pahilo Pahilo Maya
9. Arjun Dev
10. Dosti

Top 5 Actors

1. Shrikirshna
2. Biraj
3. Aryan
4. Rajesh
5. Nikhil

Top 5 Actress

1. Jharana Thapa
2. Rekha Thapa
3. Namrata Shrestha
4. Arunima Lampsal
5. Una Upreti