KATHMANDU, JANUARY 07
A two-minute teaser of Telugu movie Hitman, featuring Nepali actress Aanchal Sharma among others, was released in the Capital on January 6. It is set for a March release.
Along with Sharma, Nepali actors Prashant Tamrakar and Milan Sijpati will also be seen in vital roles in the movie which will be released in four different languages, namely Nepali, Hindi, Telugu and English.
South Indian actors Bishnu Adhikari and Aditi Sharma will be seen in the lead roles. Aanchal plays the role of Priyanka, a love interest of Jay (Adhikari), a twin of Shivaram (Adhikari).
Shivaram, an unemployed yoga trainer, discovers he has the rare ability to see the future when he goes to sleep, but in his dream people are getting killed. In the process to find out the reason behind it, he meets Anjali (Aditi), a girl who helps him get out of this situation. But soon the government marks him as the number one suspect behind mysterious deaths when he reaches out and warns them about the possible murder of the chief minister.
The public eye is now on him and a couple of mysterious killers trying their best to get rid of Shivaram.
Aanchal is the second Nepali actress to act in a South Indian movie after Swastima Khadka. She said, "The main reason to shoot in Nepal is to show that different places and scenes of Nepal are really beautiful. I am very lucky to be part of it. It was a new shooting experience and I enjoyed it."
Hitman is being viewed as a film with the potential to expand the scope and market of Nepali movies. Deepak Adhikari, the film's producer said, "This is going to be the first movie where we are using Nepali language in the portions shot in Nepal."
According to Tamrakar, Nepali language will be used in those parts shot in Nepal with the subtitles in Telugu.
Bishnu, also the film's director, informed that 40 per cent of the film was shot in Nepal to receive the blessings of native people here and to get success in the international film market.
Sharing that though many south Indian movies have been shot in Nepal in the past those scenes were presented as scenes from other countries, Akash Adhikari, president of the Nepal Film Producers' Association requested the film's producer and director to maintain the real identity of the scenes shot in Nepal.
Akash said, "We have good technicians, good technology, good actors and actresses in our Nepali film industry.
What we don't have is a big market. Our objective is to broaden that market. What we need now is the digital sector and OTT platforms for Nepali film industry. We are talking with Vishnu about how to connect Nepal and South India, and how to grow in OTT platforms. We hope for a positive result via this movie."
A version of this article appears in the print on January 8, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.
