When his older brothers talked about beating up villians and dancing with heroines, Daya Hang Rai dreamt of being an actor. Two decades later, his popularity has made the macho-men of Nepali film look outdated.
Nepali actors were typically required to be well-built or baby-faced. With Rai’s popularity, even those with squinty eyes, chubby bodies and flat noses can aspire to stardom and the film world is finally looking more inclusive.
Rai got his start at a time when audiences were sick of watching cheaply produced and badly acted mock-Bollywood movies. Nepali filmmakers too had started looking at cinema in a slightly different way and based their stories and characters on what they had seen in society.
Says Rai: “How else would a chink like me become an actor?”
Born in Khawa, a remote corner of Bhojpur, Rai was already writing plots before he finished high school. After taking part in an acting workshop at the Nachghar, he wanted to become a director.
But his teacher, the actor and director Anup Baral, encouraged him to continue acting. “He was a shy one, maybe he was afraid too,” says Baral. “But I could see he had what it took, so I forced him to act in one of my plays.”
After receiving positive feedback for his role as an old man in the play Siruma Rani, Rai felt Baral had been right after all. But theatre alone wasn’t enough for him. Rai kept on hoping he would get cast in a film.
Almost by coincidence, Rai met Ram Babu Gurung who was looking for a Mongolian-faced actor for his Gurung language film Anagarki. He played the hero but got very little exposure because the film was limited to charity shows after it was made. Rai’s hard work paid off when he was cast in Manoj Pandit’s film Dasdhunga and was praised for his acting.
Next was Loot, where he played a comical would-be bank robber. The film became an overnight hit and propelled Rai into stardom. Every Nepali producer wanted to cast him in their films.
But Rai doesn’t want to be known as the funny man from Loot. “Each of my films must establish a different character, or else I will be typecast and outdated,” says Rai. His role as Kaji in Kabaddi has somewhat helped his cause, but Rai is worried audiences might take him for a comedian who makes people laugh by making faces.
These days Daya Hang Rai commands up to Rs 700,000 per film, but he is still humble as ever and leads a simple life. He prefers local eateries and often travels by public transport. Says his mentor Baral: “He really is a hero for young Nepalis to look up to.”