Nepal Showbiz Latest News and Updates

Manori Ravindran International Editor New York’s South Asian International Film Festival has appointed Chayan Sarkar as its new president. A filmmaker, entrepreneur and festival director, Sarkar is also the founder of the Indian International Film Festival of Queensland in Australia. He takes over from SAIFF founder Shilen Amin, who will step down as president, but will remain a member of the festival’s board of directors. Sarkar joins SAIFF as the festival enters its 19th year as a leading film festival in the U.S. for new cinema from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal, and within the Indian diaspora. In recent years, SAIFF has become increasingly influential as a platform for South Asian cinema, both in the U.S. and internationally. Fourteen of India’s submissions for the international feature film Oscar have had their North American premieres at the festival.

Naman Ramachandran For the first time in its 37-year history, the SXSW festival in Austin will host South Asian House, an initiative to celebrate South Asians from India, Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, and Maldives as well as accomplished members of the diaspora. The initiative, scheduled for the first weekend of SXSW on March 11 and 12, 2023, will feature programming around film and television, dance and music, technology, business, fashion, comedy and climate change from a South Asian world view across plenaries, sessions, panel discussions, workshops, art exhibits, book launches and music concerts. It will take place in the 4th Street neighborhood of downtown Austin, near the Austin Convention Center event headquarters.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Italian producer Andrea Iervolino (“Waiting for the Barbarians”) has acquired a controlling stake in central London’s Mercato Metropolitano food market and teamed with British music producer David Tickle’s Tickle Entertainment on a doc series set there about global food culture. Iervolino, whose Iervolino and Lady Bacardi Entertainment (ILBE) company produces feature films including Bobby Moresco’s upcoming “Lamborghini,” is also the founder of innovative digital entertainment platform TaTaTu, a social media platform that uses a form of rewards points called TTU Coins. TaTaTu recently acquired a controlling stake in London’s Mercato Metropolitano from its founder Andrea Rasca who in 2016 established this pioneering community market as a space for social exchange and environmental sustainability. The Mercato is now being used as the location for an upcoming docu-series chronicling the journey of four chefs who sought refuge in the United Kingdom respectively from Syria, Namibia, Nepal, and Uzbekistan.

Naman Ramachandran Leading Indian AVOD platform MX Player has set a multi-year partnership with Lionsgate to bring premium Hollywood content onto the service. Via this agreement, MX Player consumers in India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Maldives will now have access to more than 50 Hollywood blockbuster films dubbed in the Hindi, Tamil and Telugu languages in a year. Titles available in September include “Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1,” “Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2,” “War” and “Destruction: Las Vegas.” Mansi Shrivastav, senior VP, content acquisitions and alliances, MX Player, said: “Our partnership with Lionsgate allows us to bring some of the most popular and commercially acclaimed Hollywood films to our viewers in their local languages. This partnership also enables us to attract new users to the platform while consolidating our existing audience base. We are thrilled with this alliance and look forward to working closely with the team at Lionsgate to make more Hollywood content available for users in the region.”

A Manchester entrepreneur embarked on an extraordinary journey to be reunited with his Apple AirPods after he left them behind on a flight. Lewis Ellis, who starred in the BBC One business contest The Apprentice in 2019, flew 4,000 miles to track down his wireless earbuds which he was parted from five months ago.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentBanijay Nordic label Meter TV is set to produce “The Journey – 15 Days in Nepal,” a new adventure reality series showcasing Scandinavian celebrities, for Viaplay Group. It’s one of the latest examples of streamers investing in premium unscripted shows.

Manchester City Soccer Superstar Erling Haaland Strikes Viaplay Deal

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorIn the mesmerizing and strangely beautiful documentary “Matter Out of Place,” which world premieres in International Competition at the Locarno Film Festival on Wednesday, Austrian director Nikolaus Geyrhalter looks at how we dispose of our trash. But, taking a broader view, he is trying to gain a better understanding of mankind, and the impact it is having on the planet, he tells Variety.The locations for the film are wide ranging: it moves from the mountains of Switzerland to the coasts of Greece and Albania, to an Austrian refuse incinerator, and then to Nepal and the Maldives, and finally to the deserts of Nevada for the Burning Man event.When choosing locations, sound was as much of a consideration as the images.

More than 30 years ago, two mates were putting the world to rights over a Nepalese curry and a couple of pints when they noticed a small vegetarian cafe on Lapwing Lane, just off Burton Road in West Didsbury. Though neither of them had run a restaurant before, something about it piqued their interest.

With its tree-lined streets, buzzing brunch scene and great transport links, it's no surprise that Didsbury is one of the most covetable places to live in south Manchester. Its extensive food and drink scene may be dominated by breakfast spots but don't be mistaken, the suburban village, stretching from east to west, also encompasses a number of upscale dining options and popular drinking dens.

Watch NowStarring Benedict Cumberbatch, Elizabeth Olsen, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Rachel McAdams, the Marvel sequel unlocks the Multiverse and pushes its boundaries further than ever before. was directed by Sam Raimi and written by Michael Waldron. Arriving on Disney Plus a month earlier than expected, the film will be available on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray and DVD on July 26.The Marvel Cinematic Universe boasts so many characters and story threads that a full-blown exploration of the multiverse seems poised to confuse things big time, and the sequel is no exception. Ahead, find out how to watch online and where to catch up on other MCU films and TV series.is now streaming exclusively on Disney+.

New digs for a Duggar! Jill Dillard (née Duggar) shared photos of her new house as she and husband Derick Dillard prepare to welcome their third child together.

EXCLUSIVE: Westbrook Studios and REI Co-op Studios have teamed up to produce a documentary about the first all-Black team, supported by Nepali Sherpas, to summit Mount Everest. News & Documentary Emmy nominee Rolake Bamgbose (The Weekly) and Justice A. Whitaker (Restrictions Apply) will direct and produce the project about the team’s historic achievement notched earlier this month via their Shango Light Films banner, in their feature debut.

Atlanta, which deals with his past racism controversy.In a 2019 interview with The Independent while promoting the revenge film Cold Pursuit, the actor recounted a story where he admitted he once went looking for a “Black bastard” to kill after learning a close friend had been raped by a Black man.Recalling the incident, Neeson said: “I went up and down areas with a cosh, hoping I’d be approached by somebody – I’m ashamed to say that – and I did it for maybe a week, hoping some ‘Black bastard’ would come out of a pub and have a go at me about something, you know? So that I could kill him.”His comments were put back under the spotlight in the Atlanta episode ‘New Jazz’, where Alfred Miles, aka Paper Boi (Brian Tyree Henry), has a sequence of hallucinatory encounters after consuming “Nepalese space cakes” in Amsterdam.They got Liam Neeson talking about his racist comment at a place called “Cancel Club” on the newest episode of #AtlantaFX

Get Tickets for To catch up on the storylines so that you're fully ready to watch the newest movie, keep reading to find out which Marvel movies and series you should stream beforehand. What better movie to watch before the sequel than the first  film. The 2016 movie, available to stream now on Disney+, tells the story of Stephen Strange (played by Benedict Cumberbatch), a brilliant, but self-involved neurosurgeon who loses everything after his hands are damaged in a car accident. On a quest to heal his injuries, Strange travels to Nepal to study mystic arts and unlocks his true potential as a magician.

Film Independent today announced the names of the 30 filmmakers, from 11 nations, selected to participate in its 2022 Global Media Makers LA Residency, taking place in person this month.

The Associated Press.Twenty-one U.S. states and the District of Columbia currently offer gender-neutral options on official identification, including driver’s licenses.

Justin Morgan “Beyond the Summit” (“La Cima”), the latest film from director Ibón Cormenzana, producer of Goya-winning “Blancanieves,” has world premiered at Spain’s Malaga Film Festival, where it must rate as one of the event’s most singular and striking films. It was also one of four new Spanish films to feature in a Market Premiere showcase on Monday, the first day of the Spanish Screenings. The French-Spanish co-production, starring Javier Rey (“Sin fin”) and Patricia López Arnaiz (“The Plague”), tells the story of Mateo (Rey), an amateur mountaineer determined to scale Annapurna, a Nepalese peak rated as one of the world’s deadliest.On his first day, Mateo takes a fall, ending up in the care of revered Spanish mountaineer Ione (Arnaiz), who cares for him despite his recklessness. The story follows a tug-of-war relationship between the two of them, as Mateo seeks to summit despite ghastly conditions, and Ione attempts to bring him to sanity.But Mateo is determined to push for the summit, whatever the cost.

2022 Malaga Festival Lineup:Main Competition“Emperor Code,” (“Código Emperador,” Jorge Coira, Vaca Films, Playtime, Spain)The Malaga Fest opener, a noirish crime thriller with special services operative Luis Tosar moonlighting for the elite, here trying to dig up the dirt on a young politico. Segueing rapidly to Netflix after an A Contracorriente release in Spain.“A Mae,” (Cristiano Burlan, Brazil) The latest from the prolific Brazilian narrative and doc director, maker of euthanasia-themed “Antes do fim,” and 2015’s “Hunger.” In it, a humble street vendor mother searches desperately for her missing son, claiming the right to at least bury his body.

Spencer Matthews is said to be making a documentary about his late brother Michael, who sadly passed away back in 1999 when descending from Mount Everest. A source revealed this week that Disney + have shown an interest in the programme, which will see former Made in Chelsea star Spencer attempt to recover his brother's body from the mountain. "It is a hugely emotional project and will be a very upsetting journey for many reasons, but Spencer is hugely passionate about embarking on it if he can make it work," a source told The Sun.

Naman Ramachandran BBC Studios, the commercial arm of the BBC, has set a content deal with MX Player, India’s largest AVOD service, which also has a strong reach across Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Maldives and Pakistan. The partnership kicks off with Simon Allen‘s “The Watch,” a series inspired by the characters in Terry Pratchett’s bestselling “Discworld” novels, which follows an unlikely group of misfits, The City Watch, who are forced to find the guts to save the world, surprising even themselves in the process; and “Line of Duty” creator Jed Mercurio‘s “Critical,” set in a major trauma center that only deals with the most serious cases, following an emergency medical team that battles through the vital first hour of care to save lives that hang in balance.

Naman Ramachandran Entrepreneur Karnesh Ssharma is launching Clean OTT, a streaming service focusing on female-oriented original content, in the first quarter of 2023.Female actors, directors and producers will be at the heart of the service, which aims to move away from the male gaze that plagues Indian content and to create a sustainable platform for female professionals to further their career in the entertainment industry, while also removing age barriers.The content will include originally curated and produced works by Clean and pre-selected projects that meet the Clean OTT messaging framework by other producers from India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Nepal.Ssharma is also a co-founder of Clean Slate Filmz (Netflix’s “Bulbbul,” Amazon’s “Paatal Lok”). The Clean OTT library will feature work from directors, scriptwriters, actors, and producers associated with Clean Slate Filmz, as well as providing opportunities to emerging talent.

Many have heard the names Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, the mountaineer from New Zealand and Nepal who in 1953 were the first men to summit Mt. Everest. Climbing enthusiasts will have heard about Japan’s Junko Tabei, who was the first woman to reach the highest point on Earth in 1975.

Prabal Gurung blended his love for his adopted city of New York and his homeland of Nepal in a Fashion Week show featuring psychedelic flower prints imbued with a New York edginess.

The World Health Organization has released a new report on Omicron sub-variant BA.2 which shows the strain accounted for 21.5% of all new Omicron cases analyzed worldwide in the first week of February. Omicron, in turn, represented nearly all of the variants identified globally (98.3%) in the genomically-sequenced samples submitted to the GISAID data-sharing hub in the previous 30 days.

Naman Ramachandran Acclaimed Nepalese filmmaker Deepak Rauniyar has cast Indian actor Tannishtha Chatterjee as one of the leads in his upcoming feature “The Sky Is Mine.”Chatterjee’s credits include “Brick Lane” (2007), for which she scored a best actress nomination at the British Independent Film Awards, “Parched” (2015) and “Lion” (2016). She won the Asia Star Award for best Asian filmmaker at Busan for her directorial debut, “Roam Rome Mein” (2019).Rauniyar’s latest work, short film “Four Nights,” is playing at Berlinale Shorts. The filmmaker’s first feature, “Highway,” premiered at the 2012 Berlinale and played Locarno, while his sophomore feature “White Sun” (2016) won awards at the Venice, Palm Springs, Fribourg and Singapore festivals.

Naman Ramachandran Go language-specific, go cheap and go hyper-local to reap success appears to be the motto of a range of streamers operating across South Asia.With countries including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and Afghanistan, South Asia is a vast region populated by 1.9 billion people speaking a welter of languages. It is no secret that people in the region prefer consuming content in their own tongues.

Nicola Sturgeon yesterday confirmed that a sub-variant of Omicron has been found to be in circulation in Scotland.

Naman Ramachandran Sony Pictures Networks India (SPN) has acquired exclusive South Asia media rights for the 2022 Asian Games taking place later this year at Hangzhou, China. SPN will have the rights to broadcast the games across its sports channels in India and the subcontinent including Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Afghanistan, Bhutan and Maldives, and on streamer SonyLIV through Sept. 2023.

Dame Jacqueline Wilson and KT Tunstall are among a number of celebrities sharing childhood memories and photos in support of WaterAid’s campaign to help girls around the world complete their education. The Thirst For Knowledge campaign is working to get clean water and toilets into schools in countries such as Nepal, to ensure children’s health and education is not threatened. Wilson and Tunstall lead a group of famous faces backing the project, including actor Sir Tony Robinson, athlete Ellie Simmonds and TV chef Nadiya Hussain.