Nepali Times

As a kid, long before she was a household face in Nepalis’ living rooms, Reecha Sharma would sit in her living room watching Bollywood movies for hours. In school she took part in almost every acting competition and won as many awards. Little did she know her religious devotion to cinema would one day help her seal the top spot in the industry she had grown to love.Although Sharma’s father wanted her to become a nurse, he had a dramatic change of heart after watching her music video and realising just how good she was.

“I am just happy to be here,” beams the former TV artist who even after three successful movies in a row - Uma, Loot, Highway - shows no signs of smugness. Her stellar performance as a young girl forced to join the Maoists and take up arms against her brother in Tsering Rhitar Sherpa’s Uma won her the love of critics and ordinary Nepalis alike. “Out of the six films I have completed, I enjoyed working on Uma the most because Tsering was immensely encouraging,” admits the star.

Sharma made her big screen debut in 2009 withFirst Love, a film about friendship, love, and betrayal. “When I look back, I am surprised by how much I have grown since then,” she says. She truly has. From playing a caring mother who’s forced to take up prostitution in Deepak Rauniyar’s Highway to her much talked about role in Uma, Sharma has shown her range as an actor and has emerged as the go-to star for filmmakers who want to try something ‘new’. “It’s good to be a part of the industry at a time when people are willing to experiment and not just rely on age-old formulas of song-dance-romance,” says the 28-year-old.

In her five years in Kollywood, Sharma has also learnt to be more cautious when it comes to selecting scripts and bemoans a bad habit among producers and directors of handing out scripts to actors just weeks before shooting. Preparation she believes is a key to good performance. “I turn down last minute scripts because I believe in becoming the character, not acting it out,” she explains with refeshing candor.

At times she finds it a bit disheartening to see actors both in films and theatre not getting the respect and recognition they deserve. “When the cricket or football team return after playing abroad, people queue up outside the airport,” she says. “But when we return from international shoots or award festivals, no one bothers. Maybe as the industry progresses, Nepalis will start appreciating our hard work and have a better opinion of the profession.”

For aspiring actors and actresses, she has one simple advice: “Acting is not only about attitude and talent, but also about technique. Make the effort to learn basic concepts and theories, go to acting school.”