Ashutosh Tiwari in 'Lights, camera, zzzz' (Strictly Business, #192) completely fails to understand the background, context and audience of the Nepali movie industry by saying that they admit to being ashamed of being Nepali cinema artists. I have heard some artists' dissatisfaction with the Nepali movie industry's lack of a solid market and insufficient pay thereof, which have led them to seek other fulltime professions in order to maintain their livelihoods. I think they have every right to be disgruntled in that regard as long as we, the educated, English-speaking urban hipsters are unwilling to appreciate our own products over Hollywood and Bollywood fare. He then goes on to say that Nepali music videos are far superior to Nepali movies. Maybe he is focusing only on the cute, young models with awkward looks on their face as they catwalk on the sidewalks. They may be entertaining, but they are not 'better, slicker, bolder, more creative or technically sophisticated.' Contrary to Tiwari's assertions, people calling the shots in the movie industry are not all 'from the older generation with fixed views.' In fact, some have lived for a long time in the most developed and liberal societies in the world. The reason 'Nepali movies remain and will remain dull and boring' to people like Tiwari is because they are not made for English-speaking Kathmandu urbanites. The rest of Nepal loves them.

Kedar Koirala,
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