Manisha and her Chinese-American co-star Wang Lee-Hom were just beginning their film shoot in a classroom in Mahadevstan in Kavre for MTV's widely-popular Speak Your Mind programme when a goat ambled in and nuzzled against Wang's arm. The MTV crew kept the cameras rolling and before we knew it, a star was born: Nepal's most famous kid is going to be on MTV!

Speak Your Mind is a joint production of UNICEF and MTV, and the Nepal documentary will be watched in some 160 million households all over Asia. Earlier programmes, such as those on AIDS in Thailand and the Philippines were great hits, according to MTV producer Melissa Tham.

After the shoot, 15-year-old Santoshi offered Manisha Koirala bhuteko makai bhatmas and munching it the Nepali Bollywood star felt tears welling up in her eyes. The smell of roasted corn and soyabeans cooked by a school girl in Panchkhal suddenly brought back memories of her childhood, and she felt: "I am home."

Combining the drawing power of a celebrity with the reach of MTV is a powerful tool to spread awareness about issues involving children. UNICEF's Stewart McNab says the rationale behind using showbiz personalities like Manisha and Wang Lee-Hom is to make politicians listen: "A big name brings big fame, it inspires and influences people." For Manisha, being in Mumbai has made her sensitive to the plight of the thousands of Nepali sex workers in brothels there. She is a niece of Nepali Congress president Girija Prasad Koirala, and she met Sher Bahadur Deuba on Tuesday. They spoke at length, and (she assured us) not about politics or internal party wranglings, but about what more the government can do to ensure education, health care and protection for Nepali children.

Wang Lee-Hom is not as well known as Manisha in Nepal, but in East Asia he is a superstar and a household face. Everywhere they have gone in Nepal, people have mobbed Manisha and left Wang alone. He says he doesn't mind: "I quite enjoy the anonymity of it all in Nepal, I'm going to come back."

Wang is really taken by Nepal. "This is a magical country. And the children are so beautiful, I wanted to take some of them home with me," he says. Take the kid too, Wang.