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Nepal's cinemas yet to show Hindi movies

Nepal's cinema hall owners say they are unsure when Hindi movies will return even as a shaky Nepal government announced Tuesday evening the lifting of a ban on Hrithik Roshan's movies.

The government had issued verbal orders banning the screening of Hrithik's movies in Nepal, unless he apologised for his rumoured remarks against Nepal and its citizens.

Information Minister Jaiprakash Gupta told Radio Nepal Tuesday that the G P Koirala government has decided to lift the ban, imposed after violence erupted last week.

The violence, in which seven people were killed, erupted after media reports that Hrithik made unsavory comments about Nepal and Nepalis during a TV interview. The statement, in fact, was never made.

Observers here said Gupta's announcement came after pressure from the Indian government.

However, it had no immediate impact on cinema hall owners.

Gopikrishna Paudel, the owner of Gopi-Krishna-Radha cinema complex which was attacked by rioters last week, said he has not "taken a decision about screening Hindi movies."

His cinema complex, where Hrithik's Mission Kashmir was running, was attacked by a mob. According to Paudel, equipment worth over Rs 4 million, including projector lenses, were damaged and several reels of movies were taken away by the mob.

"I have shut my halls ever since last Tuesday's attacks," he told rediff.com.

"Cinema hall owners are meeting on Thursday. We will take a decision on screening Hindi movies then," he said.

He said the ban was never officially conveyed to the cinema hall owners. "We only read about it in the papers. The minister had only banned Hrithik movies and not Hindi movies," he said.

"By Thursday, the lenses and other replacements will arrive from Delhi. Only then will I think of reopening the halls," he said.

Sunanda Bahadur Joshi, another leading cinema hall owner and the president of Motion Picture Association of Nepal, told rediff.com that all the theatres in Nepal are "now showing only Nepalese movies."

"This week Hindi movies might return. But I am not sure," he said.

Nepal has over 200 theatres, and in Kathmandu alone there are over 40 halls. "A majority of the halls used to screen Hindi movies," he said.

Hindi movies are extremely popular with Nepalis, and Bollywood stars are very popular.

Joshi said of late Nepalese films have been slowly picking up popularity, "but they were not as popular as Hindi movies."

Meanwhile, the G P Koirala government called a meeting of political leaders and intellectuals to discuss the situation that erupted out of the anti-Hrithik protests. The meeting was to discuss various aspects of the protests.

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