Nepali cinema’s recent commercial growth has been driven in part by audiences’ growing interest in stories rooted in local culture and social life. In recent years, Nepali films have outperformed Bollywood and Hollywood releases at the domestic box office. At the same time, some of our films have made occasional splashes on the international scene, mainly at film festivals. 

Despite the attention-grabbing headlines, be they commercial box-office collections or international awards, Nepali cinema continues to rest on a very fragile foundation for two main reasons. First, commercial Nepali cinema relies on the twin pillars of social comedy and cry-drama to bring audiences to cinema halls. Second, artsy Nepali films have often relied on poverty porn to win recognition and awards at international film festivals, but struggle to attract audiences and perform commercially at home.

The good

A silver lining in Nepali filmmaking today is the effort to pursue rooted storytelling. ‘Purna Bahadur Ko Sarangi’ allowed Nepalis to relive their parents’ sacrifices to educate them. ‘Kabaddi’ and ‘Chhakka Panja’ series are mirror reflections of how love and politics intertwine in our communities. ‘Highway’, ‘Shambhala’, ‘Mukundo’, ‘Saanghuro’, and ‘Kagbeni’ are relationship portraits straight out of our homes.

The out-migration of Nepalis for work and education has made several foreign markets major sources of revenue for Nepali films. Australia has become the second largest source of box office revenue for Nepali films. Labour destinations like Dubai, Qatar, Japan, and Malaysia are other major markets. These growing box-office markets provide some degree of investment de-risking for Nepali film producers. 

The bad

While there are now major international markets to target for box office revenue, demand for overseas screenings still depends on word of mouth from Nepal’s domestic theaters. Films like ‘Purna Bahadur Ko Sarangi’ and ‘Paran’ initially received little interest from international distributors. However, once these films started packing Nepali theaters in and after the second week of release, international distributors started calling the producers. 

This hamstrings Nepali film producers from attempting challenging stories. Producers know that only social comedies and cry-dramas perform well domestically, and overseas demand mirrors domestic box-office collections. 

So, why take risks on new stories and new genres?

The domestic distribution channel is predatory. Distributors favour Bollywood and Hollywood content over local content. Multiplex hegemony means Nepali films get odd screening times while primetime hours are dedicated to foreign content. Multiplexes pull Nepali film screenings within two days of “underperformance,” often the result of odd screening times. 

Avenues to overcome predatory distribution and multiplex hegemony are limited. Nepali OTT platforms are still in their infancy and don’t have the subscriptions to justify expansion. At the same time, single-screen film theaters across the country are dwindling, leaving multiplexes to reign supreme and discriminate Nepali films against foreign fares. 

The ugly

There are many factors holding back the Nepali film industry from progress. 

The industry is filled with more charlatans than passionate filmmakers. These charlatans see potential investors as a “mark” to scam on. They not only scam the current investor but discourage any future investors from entering the industry. 

Nepali screenwriters are paid a pittance while film industries around the world dedicate as much as 10 percent of the film’s budget for screenwriting. Our filmmakers don’t tire from saying that a screenplay is the foundation of a good film, but a producer of a 50-million budget film tries to make the screenwriter work almost for free. As a result, we get screenplays that are imitations or popular work and are sometimes literal translations and copy-paste of foreign films. This sets the films for failure and discourages audiences from giving genuine films a chance. 

Informal labour use is rampant and technical staff are often underpaid or never paid. Several filmmakers have yet to pay Dinesh Sitaula, the film journalist who died in February 2026. His family continues to fight for his unpaid compensation. Umbrella organisations of technical staff and artists don’t help their members, as is evidenced from Dinesh Sitaula’s case. 

Film Development Board’s operational frameworks are outdated and need revisions. The new Film Bill is being proposed to replace the half-century old Motion Picture Act of 1969. One silver lining is the new Central Film Examination Committee that recently replaced the Censor Board. Now, films are rated for audiences instead of forcing filmmakers to cut material that the Censor Board found objectionable. While this transition still has kinks and is being slowly phased in, it is a welcome change. 

Changes necessary

Rescuing Nepal’s creatively bankrupt film industry is a monumental feat. However, every climb to the mountaintop starts with a first step. Several small steps can be taken to lift the Nepali film industry out of its rut. 

First, union-backed minimum standards are necessary to address the unregulated exploitative working conditions for the crew. This must include formalised crew contracts, collective bargaining to set baseline minimum pay standards, and mandatory health/safety requirements and insurance. 

Second, the film industry must be designated a national industry, which allows investors and producers access to national/provincial/municipal arts funding, tax rebates, and institutional loans. 

Third, the Ministry of Culture or the Film Development Board must broaden its powers in two major areas. It must enforce minimum screen-time quotas for domestic productions. This may require limiting the number of foreign films entering Nepal annually, just as China does to protect its domestic film industry. It must collaborate with regional film industries, especially in India, to establish OTT and cable distribution for Nepali films in regional markets.

Finally, there must be serious government-level institutional support to establish script databases and incubators to foster and encourage new writers. This includes strong copyright protection and royalty standards for writers. 

The author is a screenwriter in the Nepali film industry. He wrote the 2025 film ‘Abhimanyu’.