It all started on 7 Oct. 1964, when the first movie made in Nepal, Aama, premiered in Kathmandu. Bollywood filmmaker Hira Singh Khatri came to Nepal on King’s Mahendra’s invitation to direct it, and despite the undercurrent of Panchayat propaganda, Aama was the beginning of a Nepali film industry. The movie became immensely successful, screened for months in...

Nepal does not have a very long film history, but the industry has its own place in the cultural heritage of Nepal. Most Nepali films use Bollywood-style songs and narrative, and are shot on 16-millimeter film. In film industry parlance, Kathmandu, the capital and center of the Nepali-language film industry, is called Kollywood (or Kaliwood as an alternate spelling) within...