“Hello, grandfather Prachanda! Where are you? You won the election from Rukum East and left,” said a 15-year-old in a video message addressed to Nepali Communist Party coordinator Pushpa Kamal Dahal, the former prime minister and Maoist leader. “Just look at the state of our bridge. It is broken, and we have to cross the stream on foot. It could sweep away our cattle, or even us. Children also use this route to get to school. They could be swept away too. So please build us a bridge.”

Sadiksha Oli posted the video on Facebook on Sunday evening, directing her message to the communist leader with the name-de-guerre Prachanda, who waged a decade-long insurgency until 2006, making Rolpa a heartland of the conflict.

Oli filmed the video while showing the remains of a broken bridge over the Domai stream in Chunbang in ward 9 of Bhume Rural Municipality. She had gone there to graze her cattle when she decided to make the simple video. Within 48 hours, it had drawn more than 1.3 million views, 100,000 reactions and thousands of comments.

The grade 10 student at Nepal Rastriya Secondary School in Gairigaun, about an hour from her home, has been making videos for only a month. Her elder brother, Sandeep, has helped her get started, teaching her to use his phone and drone camera.

The video about the bridge was rooted in a problem Oli and other villagers face every day. The bridge, which connects residents with the ward office, school and district headquarters, collapsed two months ago and has yet to be repaired.

With the monsoon swelling the stream, crossing it has become increasingly dangerous, particularly for children travelling to school and residents moving between villages, Oli said.

“We use this bridge every day to cross the stream near our homes. It has been broken for two months, but nobody has repaired it,” she said. “I was out grazing the cattle and thought about how Prachanda had won the election from here, so I made the video without thinking too much about it.”

Oli remembers seeing Prachanda when he visited Gairigaun during the March parliamentary election campaign.

“He is about the age of a grandfather, so I called him ‘Baje’ [Nepali term of respect for an older man] and asked him to build the bridge,” she said.

The bridge video was not her first to attract a large audience.

About a month ago, she posted a video in which she used a drone to look for cattle that had not returned home after she took them out to graze.

“I had just come to look for the oxen and goats. The goats had already gone home, but the oxen had not returned. I thought they might have gone missing, so I was using the drone to look for them,” she said in the video as the drone captured images of the cattle. She then guided them back towards home.

The video has since been viewed more than 400,000 times.

Another video, in which she used the drone to look for mushrooms growing around her home, has also crossed one million views. She posted it around the same time.

“I didn’t know much about Facebook at first. I watched my brother use it and became interested, so with his help I opened an account about a month ago,” she said. “I started by posting photographs and then began making videos with his help. I started simply because I was curious. I don’t have any particular purpose beyond that.”

She operates the account under the name “Sadiksha Visuals” and has been on Facebook for only a month.

Her account has not yet been monetised, although she says the process is underway. She has posted about 20 videos and a few photographs so far. In just a month, she has gained 13,000 followers.

Learning to tell village stories

Oli’s interest in making videos began with her elder brother.

Her elder brother Sandeep said she became curious after watching him use his phone and drone. He initially let her use the equipment simply to satisfy her curiosity.

“I had already been posting photos and videos on Facebook for some time. I bought a drone because I was interested in it, and when she asked me to teach her, I opened a Facebook account for her and showed her how to post,” he said.

“At first, she just helped me. Once she learned how to shoot and post videos herself, she started enjoying it. Now she does everything on her own. We also enjoy watching her videos. But we don’t let her spend too much time on the phone because we don’t want it to affect her studies.”

Oli has also experimented with Hindi in some of her videos. Her father spent a year working in India before returning home last year, and she became accustomed to hearing Hindi. She also watches Hindi movies, which encouraged her to try making videos in the language.

“I made one video in Hindi just to try it. It received a good response, so I made a few more,” she said. “But making videos in our own language feels more natural and easier.”

Oli lives in the village with her parents and elder brother. She wants to learn more about making videos and improve her skills, but for now she remains focused on her studies.

The response to her recent video addressing Dahal has nevertheless given her a confidence boost.

Internet access is one of the challenges she faces. Mobile data on Nepal Telecom’s network barely works in the village, she said. Wi-Fi has reached her home, although the connection is poor.

“It’s not very good, but it works somehow,” she said.