Karishma talks her US stay and Nepali movie indusrty

Karishma Manandhar is an evergreen actress of Nepali movie industry. Age hasn’t discolored her beauty. Although she stayed in the US for almost eight years, she wasn’t forgotten in Nepal. After the disappointing result of her home production ‘Babu Saheb’ the established actress of Nepali movie industry migrated to the US. It has been about two and a half year since she had returned back from the US.

Karishma debuted in Nepali movie indusrty in BS 2043 with the movie ‘Santan’as Karishma KC. After she married the producer Sunil Manandhar, filmi career wasn’t easy for her. Following is a summary of an interview taken by Prakat Kumar Shishir in her residence in Godawari.

• It has been two and half years and I haven’t returned back to the US. I like living in Nepal.
• I returned back because, life in the US was very monotonous.
• Before going to the US, life here was also monotonous. For twenty years I had a same routine – got to shooting and return back. I had a feeling that I wasn’t producing my full potential. At the same time ‘Babu Saheb’ wasn’t that good.
• US is a very developed nation. The system and culture over there is matured. It is sad to say that to reach to that level we might need another 100 years. We are used to create unnecessary disputes in minor issues. Living in the US was an opportunity to experience and learn new things. I could know a lot of different things apart from acting.
• I have Green Card in the US. I didn’t take the citizenship because I want to remain a Nepali.
• In the past my roles used to be same in every movies. These days there are different roles. I don’t want to do the same thing more than once. Now, I have one more responsibility – to look after my daughter’s career and look after my family. Both my mother and my mother-in-law are old and I have to look after them.
• In the US I worked in beauty supply. Then, I opened my own shop. At that time there was a recession and it took me two years to get over it.
• At the current time, Nepali movie industry is changed a lot. These days everything is being done in digital format. Every type of movies are being made and some serious movies are also being made. Movies on every aspects like sex psychology and action focused movies are also being made in these days. In the old days the society was not that liberal.
• Although there had been a lot of changes, there is always scope of more changes. Everybody knows we are poor in dealing with the latest technology. A movie is an art and business. Those who think it only as a business ultimately fail. Even sex and fight need to have art in it to be successful.
• Sex is a taboo in Nepal and we are not comfortable talking about it. But, when movies are made on the theme, people liked it. This is the demand of time and it has a long term consequences.  We can’t ignore sex as it is main part of one’s life. In movies sex is like a pickle in a gourmet.