Khicha Studio embarked on its journey in a modest rented room with three desks and laptops. Founded by childhood friends Bibin Manandar, Sanjana Shrestha, and Rikesh Manandhar, the studio was established during their bachelor's studies on April 26, 2021.

Although the trio pursued different academic paths, their interests were never limited to what they were studying. Bibin, the lead animator, came from a fine arts background and had experience freelancing in 2D animation. “I was finding it difficult to complete animation work alone, so they joined,” Bibin explains.

Sanjana, who had initially wanted to pursue a career in social service, decided to switch directions after realising she could still help people through a different medium. “I always liked drawing,” she says. “Bibin was already doing it, and I thought—What if I team up with him to create a small career in this? He agreed. Later, Rikesh also showed interest. Since we were already close and had mutual trust, it felt right.”

Rikesh was in a similar state of transition. “I was learning coding, but I wasn’t into it,” he says. “I loved anime. I also used to play the guitar. I couldn’t connect to the coding world, so I dropped out and joined them.”

“We started as a branding design studio, creating logos and websites as we weren’t getting clients,” says Bibin. “The journey started with me working on an animated music video of my brother’s (Atul Manandhar) song named ‘Those Days’, which led to my first paid project from Prostan’s song ‘Yatra’.”

Talking about the team’s first commercial break, it came when musician Sambat Shree approached them to animate his music video, ‘Pani’. “We were sketching, scribbling—doing what we could,” Sanjana remembers. The project taught them their strengths and weaknesses as a team.

The name ‘Khicha’ itself reflects the friends’ shared background and compassion. Originally, the name was meant for an app idea to support stray dogs. “We had this friend, Rujan Tandukar, and we were thinking of creating an app to help street dogs get medical attention or be adopted,” Bibin explains. “Khicha means dog in the Newa language. The app didn’t work out, but the name stayed with us.”

Our parents weren’t too thrilled at first. “We were scolded for naming it that,” he laughs, “but now it’s okay.”

Their next big work came from Rohit Shakya of Fuzz Factory Productions, for a song called ‘Na Birsi Dinu’ by Trishala Gurung. ‘‘Then we worked on one of our longest and most challenging projects by Nawaj Ansari on his music video of ‘Vim Saboon’. It took us a year to complete,” says Bibin.

One of the other works in an animated music video was for The Uniq Poet, ‘Andhakar ko Ananta’. ‘‘While most of our work is done frame-by-frame, in this we used puppet animation and got help from Keshal Yadav of Lophophorus Studio,” says Bibin. “We prepared it in 3d, converted it to 2d, and then composed it. It was fun.”

Their workflow is collaborative—Bibin handles storyboarding and pre-production, Sanjana works on concept art and as HR, while Rikesh manages colouring, editing, and motion graphics. “After meeting the clients, we sit with the full team by including three in-house artists as well and divide work,” they say.

But finding artists hasn’t been easy. “In Nepal, few people are in this field full-time,” he says. “Most work elsewhere. So we find fresh graduates or students. We train them for two to three months. It helps build loyalty and also makes things easier for them. We had to carve our way—maybe they won’t have to.”

They hired Kriti Gautam, Suzan Pokharel, and Samikshya Rana Magar as 2d lead animators in their third year. Magar picked up the skills quickly and now mentors incoming interns.

Irtiqa Shrestha and Aastha Shrestha are some of their most frequent freelance artists who work on a project basis.

They often create awareness-driven content, such as local festival animations or animations on historical figures like Prithivi Narayan Shah. Sanjana says these ideas usually stem from curiosity. “I observe things,” she says. “For festivals, I ask my parents, ‘Why do we celebrate it? What’s the origin?’”

Animation isn’t just work for the team—it’s a way of seeing. It’s why many of their passion projects focus on nostalgia or underrepresented stories. But that doesn’t mean commissioned work is any less important. “There’s a difference between personal and client projects,” Rikesh explains. “But for us, quality always comes first.’’

Bibin adds, “With music videos, it’s a little easier. The musician already has a world; they bring the vision. For things like advertisements, we have to start from scratch.”

He points to the music video they did for Nawaj Ansari’s ‘Vim Saboon’ as an example. “The music was already a story,” he says.

Apart from music videos, they’ve also worked with UNICEF, UNESCO and the UN. “It’s exciting,” they say, “because you’re contributing something that goes beyond you.”

The first year was tough. “We were just kids with no equipment, surviving on family support,” says Sanjana. The second year brought better projects, allowing them to upgrade their laptops and register the business. By the third year, they hired artists and ventured into 3d animation with ‘Modern Buda’, inspired by Newa culture and architecture.

“Rendering 3d animations was a nightmare, our computers couldn’t handle it,” says Rikesh. They recently bought a dedicated rendering PC, a significant upgrade. In 2025, they collaborated with Peak Studio for a National Game video and revived ‘Modern Buda’ as a weekly series, gaining 37k TikTok followers.

One of their proudest achievements was gifting their parents during Dashain—Sanjana bought jewellery for her mother, while Rikesh and Bibin purchased refrigerators and washing machines. “It was emotional,” Bibin says. Our teamwork made it possible.”

While acknowledging the rise of AI, they remain cautious. “Generative AI lacks emotion,” Bibin asserts. However, they see value in AI-assisted tools like Cascadeur for 3d animation.

Currently, they’re working on ‘Prithvi Narayan Shah Part 3’ and expanding ‘Modern Buda’ as a weekly series. With sponsors now supporting them, they also focus on creating content that resonates globally, like through ‘Tales with Bohr’.

For Khicha Studio, the journey is far from over. As Bibin puts it, “It takes five years for a business to grow. We’re just getting started.”