The handson the work.

Kamal Mani Nepal

Chief Creative Advisor

Kamal Mani Nepal advises the studio's creative vision across projects, shaping tone, aesthetic direction and narrative philosophy for every film that leaves the door. With more than fourteen years across independent Nepali cinema, television and cultural programming, he brings a rare fluency in both mythic storytelling and modern documentary form. His creative notes are famous inside the studio for being one sentence long and impossible to forget.

Sushil K C

Director

“I never raise the camera until the place has finished speaking.”

A cinematic storyteller with over twelve years behind the camera, Sushil K C has directed documentaries and short films across Nepal's most sacred landscapes — from Pathibhara to the eastern river-lands. His work is defined by a patient, ethnographic gaze and an unwavering commitment to preserving oral traditions, spiritual heritage and the quiet dignity of rural Nepali life. Sushil approaches every project as a listener first and a director second.

Aakash Basnet

First Assistant Director

Aakash Basnet has served as First Assistant Director on documentaries and short films across Nepal for nearly a decade, translating each director's vision into an executable shooting schedule. He is the studio's on-set choreographer — calling positions, protecting the frame, and keeping the crew's energy steady from first slate to final wrap. His shot-lists have a reputation for arriving early and staying honest.

Bhuwan Acharya

Writer / Screenwriter

“Every script I write is a folk tale our grandmothers already knew — I simply give it ink.”

A screenwriter and cultural researcher with over a decade of published work, Bhuwan Acharya crafts scripts grounded in Sanskrit epics, Nepali folk history and the syncretic spirituality of the Himalayan foothills. His screenplays balance mythological weight with contemporary emotional resonance, drawing on years of on-the-ground fieldwork with priests, historians and village elders. Every dialogue he writes carries the cadence of the region it lives in.

Nabin Subedi

Second Assistant Director

Nabin Subedi supports every level of production as Second Assistant Director, from talent wrangling and continuity checks to location holds and background management. Seven years across Kathmandu, Dharan and remote hill shoots have made him fluent in the practical realities of Nepali filmmaking. He is often the last person to leave a set and the first to arrive the following day.

Bhim Bahadur Gautam

Creative Director

“In our films, culture is never the backdrop. It is the main character.”

Bhim Bahadur Gautam is Dhara Kala Movies' Creative Director — shaping the visual, narrative and cultural direction of every project the studio releases. Twelve years of on-set discipline across principal photography schedules in eastern Nepal have given him the rare mix of on-floor authority and creative instinct that keeps ambitious cultural stories on track. Directors and writers refine their vision against his eye before a single frame is shot.

Deepak Rimal

Story Editor

Deepak Rimal shapes rough narratives into disciplined screenplays. Nine years of editorial work across Nepali literature, cultural journalism and screenwriting labs give him a sharp instinct for structure, subtext and the moments a scene actually earns. He works closely with the writers' room to sharpen each film's spine before it reaches the floor.

Priya Malhotra

Script Supervisor

Priya Malhotra keeps every frame accountable to the story. With eight years supervising scripts across Indo-Nepali productions, she tracks continuity, dialogue, blocking and props with a novelist's memory. Her script notebooks — colour-coded and annotated — have saved more than one edit-room mystery. In her department, no thread is ever accidentally cut.

Anita Sharma

Dialogue Writer

Anita Sharma writes dialogue that sounds like it was overheard, not written. Seven years working across Nepali and Hindi productions have given her an ear for register — the difference between a priest's Sanskrit-inflected sentence and a village grandmother's turn of phrase. Her dialogues carry the film's cultural fingerprint word by word.

Rakesh Adhikari

Research Head

Rakesh Adhikari leads the studio's research desk, feeding every project a foundation of verified history, ethnography and location detail. Eleven years across cultural documentation, archives and field interviews mean the writers never work from guesswork. His research binders anchor everything from festival calendars to costume authenticity.

Rajendra Bhandari

Executive Producer

Rajendra Bhandari is the studio's Executive Producer, overseeing financing, packaging and long-range strategy across the slate. Eighteen years of experience in film financing and cultural-project stewardship — spanning private events, festival tours and international co-productions — give him a rare view of how a story becomes a business. Under his watch, no meaningful film goes unmade for want of a plan.

Milan Chaudhary

Co-Producer

Milan Chaudhary partners across projects as Co-Producer, bringing regional financing, cross-border partnerships and community relationships to each production. A decade of on-the-ground production experience across Nepal and northern India makes him invaluable when a project needs local trust as much as capital.

Kul Bahadur Karki

Production Manager

“A film is a hundred promises kept on time — my work is making sure no one ever notices mine.”

With more than fifteen years steering budgets, schedules and location logistics on Nepali productions, Kul Bahadur Karki is the studio's Production Manager — the operational spine of every release. His stewardship has quietly moved films from first-day-of-photography to festival submission — on time and inside the numbers. Producers rely on him precisely because he never raises his voice.

Sunil Kumar Sah

Line Producer

Sunil Kumar Sah is the studio's Line Producer, translating creative ambition into daily rate cards, call-sheets and vendor contracts. Thirteen years across Nepali features and documentaries have made him fluent in the practicalities of shooting anywhere from Kathmandu to Terai plains. His line-item budgets are precise enough to survive a monsoon.

Ritika Verma

Associate Producer

Ritika Verma supports production leadership across development, pre-production and post, handling festival submissions, market decks and international correspondence. Six years across cross-border projects have made her the studio's bridge to programmers, agencies and press.

Suraj Tamang

Production Coordinator

Suraj Tamang runs the production office day-to-day, coordinating crew, vendors, transport and unit-support. Eight years of on-set experience across Kathmandu Valley and eastern Nepal have made him the fixer every director hopes to have. If it is buildable, he has already found it.

Neha Agarwal

Producer

Neha Agarwal produces documentaries and short films with a producer's instinct for both story and spreadsheet. Twelve years across Indian and Nepali productions have taught her when to protect the director and when to protect the budget. Her sets are calm because her paperwork is exact.

Meera Pradhan

Location Manager

Meera Pradhan scouts, secures and manages every location the studio films on — from monastery courtyards to river-valley villages. Seven years of relationship-building with community leaders, priests and district offices give her access most productions cannot buy. She reads a location the way a cinematographer reads light.

Ravi Krishnan

Director of Photography

Ravi Krishnan is the studio's Director of Photography, with sixteen years of feature and documentary work spanning southern India and the Himalayas. His signature is a warm, unhurried palette that carries the weight of a location's history without romanticising it. He has the eye of a painter and the discipline of an engineer.

Bijay Limbu

Camera Operator

Bijay Limbu operates camera across handheld and long-lens work for the studio's documentaries. Nine years of on-set experience in Nepal's toughest terrains — from monastery interiors to riverbed shoots — have given him the balance and stamina that ethnographic filmmaking demands.

Aarav Iyer

Visual Effects Supervisor

Aarav Iyer leads the studio's visual-effects pipeline, integrating subtle CGI, matte-work and colour finishing into documentaries that must remain photographic in feel. Eleven years across Indian post-production houses give him the craft to make invisible fixes stay invisible.

Srijana Shrestha

Cinematographer

A cinematographer known for her patient, painterly compositions, Srijana Shrestha has photographed documentary and short-form work across Nepal for more than a decade. Her lensing brings a devotional stillness to the studio's sacred-space stories — light treated as its own performer. She favours long lenses, natural sources and the pause between two exposures.

Prashant Thapa

Drone Operator

Prashant Thapa flies the studio's drones across Nepal's cliffs, valleys and temple complexes. Six years of aerial work — under CAAN permissions and hard mountain winds — have made him the person cinematographers trust to bring back a shot they could not otherwise get.

Dinesh Rai

Steadicam Operator

Dinesh Rai operates steadicam and gimbal rigs across the studio's dramatic and documentary work. Eight years of moving-camera experience translate directly into the elegant, unhurried floats that carry viewers through festival grounds, cave interiors and village streets.

Alisha Karki

Second Unit DoP

Alisha Karki heads second-unit photography — capturing landscape, insert-shots, cultural detail and behind-the-scenes coverage that widens each film's visual world. Seven years of documentary lensing have made her the go-to for texture, mood and the small frames that stitch a film together.

Rohan Malhotra

Art Director

Rohan Malhotra art-directs on the ground, translating production design boards into built reality. Nine years across Indo-Nepali productions give him fluency in both temple-precinct authenticity and contemporary interior design. He is the person who ensures a hand-carved column looks a thousand years old on the first take.

Manisha Tuladhar

Production Designer

Manisha Tuladhar heads production design for the studio's cultural-fantasy and heritage projects. Twelve years working across Newa iconography, palace architecture and living rituals give her a rare authority over how sacred spaces are built and dressed for the camera. Her sets are researched down to the placement of a single oil lamp.

Kavita Rai

Makeup & Hair Artist

Kavita Rai leads makeup and hair for the studio, from character prosthetics to festival body art. Eight years across features, documentaries and stage work have made her deft with both the everyday face of a village grandmother and the ceremonial mask of a Bhairav dancer.

Sneha Joshi

Costume Designer

Sneha Joshi designs costume across ethnic, historical and contemporary registers. Ten years of research into Nepali, Newa, Limbu and Tibetan textile traditions inform every silhouette she puts on screen. Her wardrobes tell you which valley a character came from before they open their mouth.

Roshni Yadav

Wardrobe Supervisor

Roshni Yadav supervises wardrobe on set — continuity, breakdowns, quick changes and repair. Six years of on-floor discipline mean every shirt cuff, scarf fold and sindoor line is exactly where the previous take left it.

Bikash Maharjan

Set Decorator

Bikash Maharjan dresses the studio's sets with the everyday objects that make a room feel lived-in — brass, cloth, ash, offering, kitchen soot. Seven years of art-department experience across Kathmandu productions give him an unerring sense for the object that carries story without shouting.

Vikas Nair

Production Sound Mixer

Vikas Nair mixes production sound on location, from boom-caught dialogue to ambient captures across noisy festival grounds. Nine years of set-mixing across the subcontinent make him the person who returns to base with clean tracks even when the day did not go clean.

Diwas Rai

Music Director

“The hills already have a score — bells, drums, wind and chant. I simply write it down.”

Diwas Rai is Dhara Kala Movies' resident Music Director — a composer who scores documentaries and features by drawing on Kirat percussion, sarangi vocabulary, Newar dhime rhythms and contemporary orchestral texture. His most recognised work at the studio is the score for Threads of Faith: The Budha Subba Story, alongside music for Kalash Ko Sangeet, Purba Ko Ganga and Rato Machhindranath. Over twelve years across Nepali and cross-border productions, Diwas has developed a signature that translates the sonic character of eastern Nepal — bell, drum, wind, chant — into a language international audiences can feel without subtitles.

Nirmal Gurung

Boom Operator

Nirmal Gurung swings boom on the studio's documentary shoots. Six years of on-set discipline mean he can hold a boom over a two-hour ritual conversation without shifting a millimetre — a small kind of devotion that entire scenes rest upon.

Prajwal Shrestha

Sound Designer

Prajwal Shrestha designs sound for the studio — from foley to atmospheric field recording. Eleven years across Nepali and Indian productions have given him a library of authentic textures — temple bells, monsoon rain, mountain wind — and the craft to place them beneath dialogue without ever crowding it.

Saraswati Devi

Playback Vocalist

Saraswati Devi lends her voice to the studio's musical projects, drawing on thirteen years of classical training and folk-song stewardship. Her vocals carry the studio's spiritual-cultural films across languages — Nepali, Sanskrit, Hindi — with the ease of a singer for whom faith and music are the same act.

Aditi Bhattacharya

Film Editor

Aditi Bhattacharya edits documentaries and feature-length work for the studio. Twelve years in the cutting room across Indian and Nepali post houses give her a rare ear for narrative rhythm and a rarer patience for the pause between two moments. Her cuts breathe.

Sameer Prasad Chhetri

Post Supervisor

Sameer Prasad Chhetri supervises post-production across editorial, sound and grade, keeping schedules, technical specs and deliverables aligned to festival deadlines. Nine years of post-management experience make him the calm hand that walks a film from picture-lock to premiere.

Kartik Vijay

Colourist / Additional DoP

Kartik Vijay grades and — when needed — shoots for the studio. Ten years of colour-finishing across independent and festival-bound features let him carry a film's cultural palette across scenes, sequences and screens. His grades preserve the light the cinematographer intended, not the light a monitor prefers.

Ishaan Bhandari

Assistant Editor

Ishaan Bhandari assists on editorial across the studio's slate, organising rushes, syncing sound, cutting selects and preparing the timeline for the lead editor. Five years across documentary and short-form work have made him fluent in the housekeeping that keeps a cutting room usable.

Priyanka Basnet

Motion Graphics

Priyanka Basnet designs the studio's motion graphics — from title sequences and lower-thirds to historical maps and animated infographics inside documentaries. Six years of design across cultural and educational programming give her a light hand and a strong archive.

Anita Ghimire

Publicity & Festival Coordinator

Anita Ghimire runs the studio's publicity and festival submissions, coordinating press days, screening logistics and traveller support for delegates. Eight years across international festival circuits and press engagements make her the studio's calm voice in every inbox that matters.

Anmol Bhave

Story Development

Anmol Bhave supports early-stage story development — reading, note-writing, treatment shaping — for projects moving from idea toward greenlight. Nine years of development experience across Indo-Nepali productions give him a reliable read on what a story is trying to become.

Sudip Sharma

Development Consultant

Sudip Sharma consults on development across the studio's slate — story premise, market positioning and festival pathway. Twelve years across writers' rooms and development labs give him the vocabulary to speak equally to a director, a distributor and a market programmer.

Reeta Shakya

Social Impact Lead

Reeta Shakya heads social impact and community screenings — designing the outreach programmes that carry the studio's documentaries into schools, NGOs, embassies and grassroots events. Ten years across cultural-development and awareness campaigning make her the bridge between film and the change it aims for.

Manoj Karki

Private Screenings Coordinator

Manoj Karki coordinates the studio's private screenings for corporates, embassies, cultural institutions and philanthropic partners. Seven years of experience in event management and cultural programming let him deliver a premiere-quality screening anywhere from a five-star hall to a village community centre.