Indrayani celebrates winning of awards

BY A STAFF REPORTER,Kathmandu, June 17: Nepal Bhasa short movie ‘Indrayani’ celebrated the winning of three different awards. Recently, the movie won the ‘Best Feature Film’ for having met the highest standards of excellence in the national film category at the Spiny Babbler International Film Festival-2023.

Earlier, the movie also won the ‘Best Movie’ award at the 3rd Nepal International Film Festival and ‘Nepalbhasa Times Chiehaa Sankipa Sirapa’. The team of Indrayani was honoured at a programme organised by Page 3 in Kathmandu on Wednesday evening. 

Directed by Darshan Bir Shakya, ‘Indrayani’ is a movie based on a folktale which depicts a story where a daughter is discriminated against by her own family after getting married to a poor. Aaradhya Laxmi Khadgi is on the lead role in the movie cinematographed and edited by Manoj Ratna Shahi. 

Stating that the Nepal Bhasa movie industry was at the struggling phase, Shakya said that the people in this sector should put additional effort to get recognition. He said though Indrayani was based on a folktale, such a story still existed in the society. 

In the movie, the protagonist rebels against discrimination for being poor. We tried to convey a social message that a character of a person is not built by money but by own virtue, he added.

Similarly, Shahi said that it was challenging for them to portray a folktale that did not have a timeline. “In the movie, we have tried to present a mythological time period”, he said “I have used low lighting techniques to suit the story.” We chose the location, characters and other aspects that complimented the script the best, he added. 

According to Shahi, short movies are one of the best mediums to deliver social messages. He said that short films were not much practised in the context of Nepal, but could be used to reflect social status and create awareness in society as it was a short form of a movie and can reach a large audience at once.