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Nepal’s first international franchise singing reality show—Nepal Idol Sea­son 1—was a rollercoaster ride, from being everyone’s favorite one moment to being a topic of controversy in another. Nepal Idol is gearing up for the second season of its musi­cal journey. In fact, the audi­tion for Season 2 was com­pleted this month.

“Fewer people came to the audition this year compared to last year,” says Suresh Pau­del, the director and project head of Nepal Idol. “But those who did come were genuine singers,” he added. Suresh Paudel took up the direction of Season 2 after Laxman Pau­del decided to part ways with AP1 HD television.

Overall, various changes were made in this season of Nepal Idol.

“This season we decided to award talented signers a Golden Microphone during the audition itself. The con­testants the judges deemed competent enough to appear directly in the gala round were given the green light. Four contestants received the Golden Microphone in the audition round. Each of them is fantastic,” he shared.

Further, the judges’ author­ity was also changed. Last sea­son, only the voters had the right to decide a contestant’s fate, but from this season, there is an equal distribution of authority between the judges and the voters.

In the first season, a lawsuit was filed against Nepal Idol for airing a ‘No elimination’ episode in which the elimina­tion of a particular contestant was postponed for a week. Paudel attributes the error to many people not knowing the format, but he believes that the situation has changed now. As Freemantle Media has given various rights to Nepal Idol this year, the viewers will get to see new twists and turns such as ‘Double Elimination’, ‘No Elimination’ and a sur­prise wild card entry.

Talking about the contro­versy on social media last year when Nepal Idol failed to broadcast the live telecast of the Grand Finale in Qatar, Paudel accepts the mistake.

“We had planned every­thing but perhaps we weren’t professional enough,” says Paudel. Explaining the prob­lem, he says that the plan was to bring DSMG—Satellite broadcasting device for live transmission—via Dubai. But due to the Saudi-led blockade on Qatar, the Dubai authori­ties didn’t cooperate.

“So we decided to broadcast the event via the internet. But on the day, thousands of peo­ple came, and the signal of the tower was divided. It weak­ened the internet strength and caused a failure in live trans­mission.”

“We failed to anticipate the problem. Everything seemed to falling apart at the same time,” says Paudel. “The venue was miles away from the city. We tried getting a dedicated signal, but it just wasn’t possible in the short time we had.”

The Season 2 of Nepal Idol is set to air on July 26 with hosts Reema Bishwokarma and Asif Shah. The judge trio are Indira Joshi, Kali Prasad Baskota and Nhyoo Bajracharya.

“We will from now on hold the Grand Finale right here in Nepal,” says Paudel  

Nepali art is famous the world over for its traditional forms like Paubha and Thanka. Iron­ically, the artists are rarely known. It was to provide exposure to these obscure Nepali artists that Tilicho Kala, which works to promote Nepali art, organized the second edition of Synthesis Art Exhibition this week by. The exhibit of traditional and contemporary paintings, photogra­phy and sculptures at the Siddhartha Art Gallery in Babarmahal ran from May 2 to 5.

“Our aim was to bring together the who’s who of Nepali art under a roof and provide them with a common platform to interact and appreciate each other’s works,” says Ujen Nor­bu Gurung, the event organizer and founder of Tilicho Kala.

The event, as its name suggests, was a synthesis of traditional and contemporary arts. Indeed, the rich display symbolized the evolution of Nepali art from its traditional form to its more modern expressions, accord­ing to Gurung.

Some of the notable works on display were Erina Tamrakar’s ‘The Third Eye’, The Bajracharya Fam­ily’s ‘Wooden Sculptures’ and Lok Chitrakar’s ‘Pancha Buddha’. The exhibition also featured live band performances and poetry recitations.

Punya R Bajracharya, Samundra MS Shrestha, Kichaa M Chitrakar, Prem Chitrakar, Yanik Shrestha, Samir Maharjan, Aakash Pradhan, Pratham R Bajracharya, Sapta R Bajracharya, Amir Shakya, Pradip Shakya, Rashana Bajracharya, and Michelle LL, were other artists featured. APEX BUREAU

‘Andheri Nagari Chaupat Raja’, a drama produced by CAP motion Pictures & Kalaasi Production, which had previously been making movies and music videos, is being staged at Kunja Theater till May 11. The show time is 5:30 pm every day of the week except Wednesday. There is an extra show on Saturday at 1 pm. ‘Andheri Nagari Chaupat Raja’ is one of the most pop­ular dramas of Bhartendu Harishchandra, the father of modern Hindi literature. Directors Sangeet Sapkota and Ashish Ghimire have adapted the drama to local taste. The play is a satire on an unscru­pulous and autocratic mon­arch and reveals how a ruler’s misguided actions can lead to his downfall. “This drama is a reflection of the society we live in,” say the director duo.

The drama’s music is directed by Sangit Sap­kota and Monish Niroula. The cast includes Jiban Bhatta­rai, Shravan Singh Rana, San­jeet Pratap Malla and Peter Prince. APEX BUREAU

Anmol KC, currently the most popular and also the highest paid actor in Nepali films, is known to be a recluse. He rarely makes pub­lic appearances except during his film’s promotion. But last week, a dapper-looking KC arrived at the Hyatt Regency to attend the 6th NFDC Film Award, handed out every year by the National Film Develop­ment Company. KC had been nominated in the ‘Best Actor’ category for ‘Kri’. Later that evening, he was announced as the winner. This would surprise any regular Nepali moviegoer because KC isn’t someone known for his acting prowess. Since his debut in ‘Hostel’, he has been doing similar masala films that make do with his one-note acting. What con­vinced the jury otherwise will remain a mystery.

But hang on! KC’s victory wasn’t the only big surprise. Milan Chams, who directed the awful romantic comedy ‘Lily Bily’, won best direc­tor and the smash-commer­cial hit ‘Satru Gate’ took home the best film award, while a separate category was created to declare ‘Chakka Panja 2’ the “Best Commer­cial Film”. This isn’t the first time a Nepali award show has glossed over content and craft to recognize only a film’s com­mercial success.

This celebrity-pleasing men­tality that rules over recogni­tion of real talent has plagued the Nepali award circuit for years. Entertainment reporter Manish Anjaan, writing for online film portal ‘filmy­khabar.com’, notes that the NFDC went so far to please the public last year that the win­ners list was disclosed before the start of the actual event! No wonder Anmol KC found time to be come out of his shell for the event; he knew he was going to win.

Although the Nepali year of 2074 saw a handful of movies do well commercially, it was rather forgettable in terms of content-driven cinema. A few films that stood out were Bipin Karki- starrer action-adven­ture ‘Naka’ and Ganesh Dev Panday’s stoner comedy ‘Gaja Baja’. Both films had their share of flaws but they were refreshingly experimental and managed to give us fresh plots and characters.

By contrast, the films that did well in the Box Office— the likes of ‘Kri’, ‘Aishwarya’, ‘Satru Gate’, ‘Chakka Panja 2’, ‘Ma Yesto Geet Gaunchu’, ‘A Mero Hajur 2’ and ‘Prem Geet 2’—were those that strictly fol­lowed the Bollywood formula, in particular the style and editing aesthetics of over-the-top South Indian action flicks, and recycled clichés from the romantic films of Karan Johar and Imtiaz Ali.

With our films happy being seen as cheap knockoffs of Bollywood movies, that our film awards also mimic their Indian counterparts is perhaps no surprise. For instance, many Nepali award shows, undoubtedly inspired by their Indian counterparts, put up unnecessary categories like “Best Newcomer”, “Best Comedy Artist”, and “Best Actor in a Negative Role”. These awards exist not to cele­brate the range of acting but as “token of love” to be handed out to everyone who showed up. A couple of years ago, one random Nepali award show was thoughtful enough to put a “Best Child Artist” category but couldn’t fit real categories like film editing, sound design and production design.

Nepali film awards masquer­ade as events that celebrate the best in cinema. In reality most are musical events that undermine the award aspect of the show and highlight only the actors’ dance moves.

One such event is the yearly NEFTA Awards, organized by the Nepal Film Techni­cian Association (NEFTA), which takes place in a foreign country with a sizable Nepali popu­lation. But the award show is just a front to lure Nepali actors and celebrities in the name of honor­ing them. In reality, these are gimmicks to sell more event tickets. Others have followed the NEFTA way and, as a result, a num­bers of “Inter­n a t i o n a l Nepali Film Awards” h a v e cropped up. Some are one-offs and die after one edition, while oth­ers continue to prey on sponsors and to get attention by inviting popular actors and show­ering them with prizes, regardless of the quality of their work.

Questioning the cred­ibility of these types of award shows, filmmak­ers Deepak Rauniyar, Min Bham, Khagendra Lammichhane and Dipendra K Khanal have in different times issued statements to pull their films out from con­tention. But most filmmakers are still happy to collect tro­phies and support the idiocy.

But things need to change. Our culture of awarding films needs a complete overhaul. The focus must shift from people-pleasing and mon­ey-making to rewarding the truly deserving films and per­formances. In that case, if the organizers make some money on the side, even better.

If film awards want to be taken seriously, they need a more credible foun­dation. This will take time. Mean­while, “Are our films award-wor­thy?” might be a better topic worth exploring o