Nepal, Sept. 28 -- Nepali cinema's recent commercial growth has been driven in part by audiences' growing interest in stories rooted in local culture and social life. In recent years, Nepali films have outperformed Bollywood and Hollywood releases at the domestic box office. At the same time, some of our films have made occasional splashes on the international scene, mainly at film festivals.

Despite the attention-grabbing headlines, be they commercial box-office collections or international awards, Nepali cinema continues to rest on a very fragile foundation for two main reasons. First, commercial Nepali cinema relies on the twin pillars of social comedy and cry-drama to bring audiences to cinema halls. Second, artsy Nepali films have o...