Anup Poudel’s eyes welled up as he stood inside the Shuvakamana Hi-Vision Hall in Banepa, Kavre, on the afternoon of September 8. Poudel was surrounded by film enthusiasts gathered for a screening of the Nepali thriller ‘Elephants in the Fog’—titled ‘Tiniharu’ in Nepali—which he had produced. The occasion marked a sweet homecoming for him. This hall used to be the destination of Poudel’s escapades during his childhood. This was a place where he had first begun dreaming. “I dreamed of reaching Cannes from right here in Kavre,” he said.

In May, ‘Elephants in the Fog’, directed by Abinash Bikram Shah, won the Jury Prize in the ‘Un Certain Regard’ section at the Cannes Film Festival. But Poudel had already reached Cannes years earlier, with ‘Lori’, the short film he had produced. Poudel has so far produced or co-produced about a dozen films, including shorts and features that come at the forefront in the list of Nepal’s acclaimed indie films. Now Poudel is among Nepal’s foremost producers who are helping take Nepali stories to the world stage.

Poudel, however, didn’t set out to be a producer. He wanted to be a director. In the late aughts, Poudel enrolled at Oscar International College in Kathmandu, Nepal’s pioneering film school. Poudel’s 2010 short, ‘Democracy Is Black’, won him the Best Video award and an honour from then US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton. In 2012, Poudel directed another short film, ‘Sparsha’, followed by ‘Batuli Ko Chura’ in 2013. All of these humanistic films were inspired by his childhood spent in Kavre, Poudel says.

Poudel grew up in Mandandeupur, Kavre, during the peak of the Maoist insurgency. In those fearful years, he often felt, like many other youths, “I have to leave this place.” He wanted to first leave his village and then the country. Opportunities and his career gradually took him away. Years later, Poudel now sees the place he once wanted to leave as the source of his stories’ strength.

His unusual relationship with films and books began in childhood.

“People would gather to watch films on television,” he said. “We couldn’t sit close to the TV, so we watched from behind the crowd.”

There were books at home that belonged to his older siblings, from different school grades. He was drawn to the words of Bhawani Bhikshu. He was drawn to the magazines Muna and Sunakeshari. Gradually, he began forming a bond with characters from novels.

Around 1997–98, Poudel’s family owned a shop that had a telephone service. Villagers would come to make calls and pay for the service. He found it fascinating to listen to people talk on the phone.

“I learned about their joys and felt the tragedies they were going through,” Poudel recalled. “The emotions generated through that device awakened a deep empathy for people in me.”

Poudel began writing and telling stories as early as fourth grade. When he was in seventh grade, his Nepali teacher encouraged him to write monologues. At a time when he was influenced by fiction, Nepali films such as ‘Simarekha’, ‘Balidan’ and ‘Prem Pinda’, as well as Hindi films such as Shyam Benegal’s ‘Ankur’, left a lasting impression on him.

After sitting for his SLC examination in 2004, Anup moved to Kathmandu. He studied science in high school. Because he had consistently ranked first until Grade 10, his family expected him to become a doctor or an engineer.

“But by Grades 11 and 12, I had lost my interest in science,” Poudel recalls. “I was not sure what I was going to do in my life.”

During his high-school years, Poudel had a friend, Amol, who owned a camera. Poudel played around with it and began to discover his passion for photography and storytelling. One day, Poudel handed Amol a copy of a story he had written called ‘The Butterfly’s Dream’, telling him that he would turn it into a film one day.

A few years later, Poudel embarked on a career in filmmaking. Amol, who now lives in Germany, still reminds him, “The dream you had back then came true.”

Around 2007, Poudel was preparing to go abroad. But leaving the country was not easy; he had to go through gruelling administrative processes that often tested his patience. Poudel remembers questioning himself, “Why do I have to go through all this hassle just to move to another country? Is this what my existence amounts to?”

Poudel decided to stay back and earnestly pursue a career in filmmaking. “I immersed myself in world cinema and storytelling,” he said. “I spent day and night researching about films and filmmakers on the internet, playing movie quizzes and learning the technical aspects of writing and filmmaking.”

Anup Poudel got his first camera—a handycam—in 2008. He then began aggressively filming everything, trying to turn his stories into moving images. Poudel saw stories where most people did not look at.

Poudel recalls an incident from those days when he would see a seven-year-old boy begging by a roadside in Kathmandu with his younger brother, who was less than a year old, in his arms. Poudel switched on his handycam and followed the boy. Within a few days, they became friends. One day, the boy said to Poudel, “Brother, let’s go have some snacks.”

Poudel went with the boy to a snack shop. He watched as the boy fed his younger brother. Then the boy offered, “You have some too.” Poudel shook his head, saying he would not eat. “Come on, eat. I’ll pay,” the boy said. Poudel’s eyes began to well up.

Even today, he is moved when he remembers the affection and humanity he saw in that child. He later uploaded the video to his YouTube channel. “So many comments and responses came in that I realised how socially responsible we need to be,” Poudel recalled. “I genuinely felt proud of my work.”

Poudel’s association with Shah also began around 2011. He produced Shah’s film ‘I Am Happy’ that year. “At the time, I was working on a Spanish film,” Poudel said. “I was earning well. I invested Rs60,000 in my brother’s film. That film was selected for Busan for the first time.”

Gradually, Poudel’s interest shifted from directing towards producing. He began submitting films extensively to different festivals.

“We felt that instead of swimming in a small pond, we should swim in the ocean,” Poudel said, recalling their early attempts to take Nepali cinema to the international market. “We started to dream bigger.”

As Poudel and Shah began thinking about the future of Nepali cinema in the global market, ‘Loot’ had just arrived in Nepal. The new intervention in mainstream Nepali cinema gave them additional energy.

Around that time, iFlix announced that it would make 10 short films. Anup and Shah applied and were selected as one of the 10. The first prize was $200,000. “If we won, we could use the money to make a film,” Poudel recalled.

They then began working on ‘Lori’. At the same time, work on ‘Tiniharu’ was also underway. Eventually, both films won awards at Cannes, helping establish a distinctive Nepali voice in world cinema.

On September 8, he shared the dream he had seen in Kavre with people from Kavre. In a way, it was a dream-come-true moment for Poudel. But is this where Anup’s dreams end? He says he still has more films to make and wants to take them to newer heights. “I don’t think you can ever stop dreaming,” he said.