Kathmandu, February 10:

Lack of interest in Nepali films among the local audience is not only displacing Nepali movies from cinema halls in the Valley, it has led to hall owners screening low-grade Indian movies.

As all cinema hall owners can’t grasp reels of newly-released Hindi films, a few cinema hall owners in the Valley are learnt to be screening ‘c’ grade Hindi films to attract a particular section of people in the Valley. People can see many posters with seductive scenes on hoarding boards

and side-road walls which Nepali hall owners say are meant to attract a particular section of people. Most people who

go to see such films are chariot pullers, helpers at bus, tempo, taxis, and construction workers.

The cinema hall owners screen x-rated films usually in evening shows. They also screen ‘c’ grade films on public holidays. People say that low-earning people come on public holidays because they can stay inside the hall throughout the day as cinema hall owners don’t strictly check the tickets in such halls.

The practice is so rampant that the ministry for information and communications was receiving several complaints regarding this for the past one year. Responding to the complaints at the ministry, the government formed a monitoring committee last November to monitor cinema halls in the Valley.

The seven-member committee headed by Shibaji Lamichhane comprises representative from censor board and media fraternity, two representatives from film artistes and officials from information ministry and home ministry.

The committee raided five cinema halls. They are Ajima Cinema Hall, Swoyambhu Bishwo Movies at Samakhusi, Nishchal Cinema Hall at Sorakhutte, Jyoti Hall at Lazimpat and Kantipur Cinema Hall at Sitapaila. “First time, we warned them to stop screening such films. When they defied our warning, we forced to close down the cinema halls,” Lamichhane said.

Bishwo cinema hall stopped screening the c-grade films as the monitoring committee warned its owner of closing down the hall. “It is doing a good business these days,” the hall owner said.

The monitoring board closed down Jyoti cinema as it didn’t follow the instructions of the committee. “But, it was forced to close down on the ground that it was not renewed,” Bishwomani Subedi, a member of monitoring team, said.

According to him, the team found out that two groups — one led by former staff of Nepal Film Association and another led by hall owners — are operating to import and distribute such ‘c’ grade films for the past 20 years.

“Producers don’t provide us with the print-copy of Nepali films and business will go down if such films are stopped, says one of the owners of the Kantipur Cinema hall. We even allow customers to stay inside the hall for three shows once they buy a ticket which is not allowed in other halls.”

The monitoring committee has divided the films into two categories — adult and universal. Reels of the films that fall on the category of universal films don’t need to be censored. “As far as adult category films are concerned, the Film Development Board (FDB) asks the hall owners to cut off particular scenes and allow them to screen,” Subedi said, adding: “The hall owners, however, are not found to be cutting off the “scenes” as asked by the board.”

According to him, the practice to screen the ‘c’ grade films flourished during the royal regime as the FDB made a decision to receive ‘foreign film tax’ on monthly basis. Earlier, the halls owners had to pay the tax on daily basis when they screen films other than Nepali language.

The month-basis payment rule gave enough room for them to evade tax because they started to screen Hindi films throughout the month, but paid the tax of 15 days saying they screened foreign cinema only for fifteen days. There are 51 cinema halls registered in the Valley, out of which only 32 halls are operating.