KATHMANDU: Nepal’s first online sitcom PS Zindagi (Post-Seismic Life) has bagged the Outstanding Excellence Award for Direction and Ensemble Cast in WRPN.TV Global Webisode Competition (WGWC). This is a UK-based global competition for webisodes and TV series to promote and present worldwide community of Webisodes/TV Series from 41 countries.

The sitcom, set in the post-earthquake context, follows the lives of five urban youth. It follows how these youth live their life after surviving the April 25 quake of 2015 and is shown in a comic way.

About PS Zindagi, creator, producer, writer and actor Kavita Srinivasan shares, “After the earthquake, everyone focused on tragedy and pessimism, which forced me to do something to bring a change in society. I wanted to show the positive side of life, which was forgotten in the fear of the quake. However, the important thing is that — life goes on.”

The sitcom, produced by Musumusu Productions, is seven episodes long and directed by Utpal Jha and Pasang Dawa Sherpa. It stars Rajkumar Pudasaini, Utpal Jha, Sujata Koirala, Srinivasan, Kalsang D Lama and ‘Jaadu’ the Fish.

Krishna (Pudasaini) is terrified after the earthquake. His roommate JP (Jha) tries to console him but to no avail. Then when Muslim sisters Juna (Koirala) and Kokab (Srinivasan) come as new tenants in their building, he suddenly finds that life is beautiful and rosy.

About participating in the competition, Srinivasan says that a French citizen John Michelle Albert had emailed her about the International Festival of Digital Series in Marseille, France, a recognised competition. “I didn’t know either him or the competition. He might have seen our drama online and informed us. When I participated in it, I thought we should participate in other competitions too, which led me to WGWC.

We participated in it a month ago and got to know that we have won today. The result of the French competition will be out in October.”

The sitcom was released on April 25, exactly one year after the quake. The last episode was aired on July 14. It will be aired on television too, but the channel to be aired has not been finalised yet, informs Srinivasan.

PS Zindagi has crossed 100,000 views on YouTube. “People watch daily soaps on YouTube due to powercuts or work overload, so YouTube is the best way to reach the urban youth. We planned to release our drama online while producing it,” Srinivasan adds.