KATHMANDU, July 30: At a time when many Nepali films are being shot in foreign lands, Nepal´s own natural beauty and rich cultural heritage have been attracting many foreign film and documentary makers to do their shooting here. Not only that, various television commercials (TVC) have also been shot in Nepal, one of which is for Volkswagen, the famous German car brand.
On May 27 this year, the TVC for Volkswagen´s New Tiguan was shot in Nepal. The 59-second commercial was shot in Kathmandu, Lalitpur and Bhaktapur. The advertisement is in Chinese.
The government of Nepal has been earning good money from the foreign films, documentaries and commercials shot here. Last fiscal year alone the government earned Rs 3.17 million from film shootings carried out in various places in Nepal, as per records at the Ministry of Information and Communications (MoIC).
The government charges Rs 15,000 for a film shot in any place in Nepal other than upper Mustang and upper Dolpa. It charges $5,000 extra for a film shot in either of these two areas.
The government received Rs 1.11 million from films shot in various places in Nepal apart from Rs 2.06 million for films shot in upper Mustang and upper Dolpa.
Last fiscal year, 74 films, documentaries and TVC´s were shot in different places in Nepal while four were shot in upper Mustang and upper Dolpa. They include two feature films -Yevadu Subramniyam in Telugu and On the Roof of the World in Hebrew. Likewise, two are TVS, one for Volkswagen in Chinese and another for Black Yak in English.
The number of shootings taking place in Nepal is growing every year, according to data at MoIC. This reflects Nepal´s increasing popularity for on-location shootings.
Looking at the trend, foreign film-makers prefer cultural heritage sites in Kathmandu, Bhaktapur and Lalitpur as well as Mt Everest and sites in Chitwan, Baglung, Pokhara, Lukla, Namche and Nagarkot.
Though most of the documentaries shot in Nepal are in English, many French, German, Dutch, Japanese, Danish, Swedish and Indonesian films, documentaries and TVCs have also been shot here.
In the past also, various movies that became famous were shot in Nepal, including Everest, The Conquest of Everest, the Chinese movie Up in the Wind, Hindi movies Khuda Gawah, Hare Ram Hare Krishna, Love in Nepal, Ghar Wali Bahar Wali, Yudh, Mahan, Ek Hasina Ek Diwana and Bekabu, the French movie Caravan and the Cantonese Bodhi Dharma and Qi Yuah.
Source: myrepublica.com
Nepal Is one of the best destinations for film shooting due to its various features, Natural Beauty, Landscape, Snow caped Himalayas, different ethnic community, and their culture and language from low land to the high Himalayan range. Due to this unique feature, a film producer can shoot their film as per their want in small dimensions.