When Suman Giri, one of the producers of Nepal’s third-highest grossing film ‘Gauthali’, came across a YouTube channel that had been continuously posting pirated clips of his movie, what struck him was more than the piracy itself. It was a weary reminder of human nature.

With clips ranging from a few seconds to hours being recorded inside cinema halls and circulated without copyright permission, Giri, also one of the co-producers of Nepal’s most celebrated franchise ‘Chakka Panja’, now believes that every Nepali film is vulnerable to digital piracy.

Initially, he said, short clips of one or two minutes from ‘Gauthali’ were shared, which the production house tolerated since they also served as promotion. But almost inevitably, it escalated to 20, 27, and even 30-minute segments, splitting the film into ‘Part 1, Part 2’.

“This was when we were compelled to report the materials to the Cyber Bureau,” he said. “Almost 300 clips posted on social media, particularly on TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook, have been taken down until now.”

Nepali cinema is increasingly facing sophisticated digital piracy, yet the country's response remains merely reactive. The legal actions involve taking down individual clips under laws that predate the current social-media ecosystem, without even knowing the scale of the losses.

With this trend of digital piracy, the Nepal Film Development Board issued a notice on July 31, 2026, urging social media users and digital platform operators to stop the unauthorised recordings of Nepali and foreign film screenings in theatres.

The Board warned that such ‘cam-recording’ violated Nepal’s Copyright Act 2002 and Electronic Transactions Act 2006, further calling on the public to remove any illegally recorded content posted online. It cautioned that those involved in unauthorised recording or piracy could face legal action under existing law.

The Copyright Act (2002) declares that reproducing, distributing, or publicly sharing a film without the copyright owner’s authorisation constitutes infringement. Offenders, as a result, can face a fine of Rs10,000 to Rs100,000, or imprisonment of up to six months, or both, along with seizure of the pirated materials and compensation to the copyright owner.

In accordance with the existing laws, the Nepal Police’s Cyber Bureau handles complaints that require digital evidence such as screenshots, URLs, transaction IDs, and metadata-preserved chat logs.

“We have received digital piracy complaints particularly from the films ‘Gauthali’ and ‘Balidan’,” said Dilip Kumar Giri, SP at the Bureau. “After receiving the links to the illegally uploaded movie clips, we have been taking them down from social media.”

Yet, many Nepali audiences appear unaware that recording, sharing, or distributing copyrighted material without permission can have legal consequences. For some, watching pirated clips has simply become a way of staying connected to Nepali cinema.

Sona (name changed), an international student, said that watching Nepali films helps her “feel closer to home while staying connected to her language and culture”. As Nepali films are not always screened in global theatres, she turned to pirated videos.

“When I did have the chance to watch movies in the hall, I had posted videos on my Instagram, which I later deleted after realising it was a violation of copyright law.”

The Film Development Board, therefore, steps in to raise awareness, reminding the audience that even casual sharing of pirated clips carries legal consequences.

“Some people may not even know it's wrong, and might post something without any real intention of causing harm,” said Santosh Babu Lohani, board member of the Nepal Film Development Board. “That is why our first and primary focus is on raising awareness.”

As a filmmaker and director himself, Lohani reflects on the challenges of resisting digital piracy.

“I understand that seeing your film scattered across social media in pieces is enormously stressful,” he added.

Before watching any film in cinema halls, the audience comes across a message stating that piracy is illegal and that punishment awaits those who engage in it. These acts, to some extent, serve as an alarm and a warning to mitigate the losses faced by filmmakers.

“There have been cases of an entire film being leaked,” says Lohani. “Losses can range from small amounts to running into the tens of millions.”

While ‘Gauthali’ was able to generate commendable revenue despite the cases, not all Nepali films’ box office could be as ambitious. Digital piracy inflicts direct financial harm on producers, actors, technicians, and exhibitors, while undermining the broader growth of the Nepali film industry.

Meanwhile, other countries are developing technological and institutional responses while Nepal lacks even basic data on the scale of the problem.

As per a recent study, the Indian entertainment industry loses approximately Rs358.4 billion (INR 224 billion) annually to piracy. India’s copyright protection framework—the Copyright Act, 1957 (amended in 2012)—reinforces regulations governing the preservation of digital content. It can lead to imprisonment of up to three years with fines, website blocking, and criminal prosecution under the Copyright Act and the Information Technology Act.

The Japanese government is taking a tech-driven approach to fighting anime and manga piracy. The country’s Agency for Cultural Affairs has set aside roughly 2 million dollars to build an AI-powered system that hunts down and removes pirated content online.

In Nepal, there is neither an official figure tracking the film industry’s monetary losses due to piracy nor a specific aggregation of the official actions taken against it to date.

The question, however, is whether copyright laws written nearly two decades ago remain adequate for a radically transformed digital landscape.

“We are in the process of making a new copyright act,” said Sunita Aryal, Legal officer of Nepal Copyright Registrar’s Office.

Beyond these legal frameworks and revenue losses, digital piracy also comes at the cost of the filmmakers’ faith and trust in their audience. “If something is someone’s intellectual creation, their life’s work and entire income invested into it, and others illegally upload it just so people can watch it for free before it's even properly out, that simply hurts,” says Giri.