Born in 1977 in Dapcha VDC of Kavre Palanchowk district, Adhikari had no specific ambitions in his life. He was doing his Intermediate in Humanities when he met director Tirtha Thapa who introduced him to Dipak Raj Giri of the “Tito Satya” fame, and thus began his career in TV serials. “I still remember that day when I went for auditions with 30 other people vying for the role. We were asked to act a drunken man for three minutes. My shot was accepted in the first take itself,” he recalled, with a cup of tea in his hand.
Dipak Raj Giri was so impressed by his work that he handed over the responsibility of the management and production to Adhikari for his another serial “Tire Mire Jhyai.”
“I’m very thankful to Dipak dai for having trust in me. Since then we’ve been working together, and hope to do so in future.”
After teleserials like “Tire Mire Jhyai” and “Chetana,” he looked after the production of the hugely popular teleserial “Catmandu” which was a UNICEF Nepal project. After “Catmandu”, he got into “Tito Satya.” He not only played different roles for this weekly serial, which is all about satires and parodies on contemporary issues, he also worked as a production manager. His character role of the celebrated Yoga instructor Ramdev was well received.
Adhikari tried his hand in mainstream films like “Bir Ganeshman,” “Chor,” “Chautari”, and “Hatteri.” But he says he did not like doing movies.
“In celluloid, there are dozens of people with dozens of gossips to share than concentrating on work. I immediately came back to small screen and I’m enjoying it so far,” he adds.
Unlike those character artistes who are popular as comedy actors, Adhikari differs with the notion that comedy actors are not respected in Nepal.
He elaborated, “Those who once called us ´Jokkar´ now value us with equal respect. About the financial aspects, beginners in this profession earn as much as a second class government official does in a month (around Rs 10,000). If you’re popular, then you earn more. With me, I’ve been able to refill the tank of my vehicle, pay my mobile bills, get a sack of rice and vegetables for daily meals, and fulfill a few other requirements of my family with what I earn.”
Though Adhikari says people have now understood how comedy is equally an important genre in acting, he however admits that many on the streets still bully them.
Remembering one such incident, Adhikari unveiled, “I was hanging out with my friends at Basantpur one evening. We were having tea, and some college students were nearby. They recognized me and asked me to caricature Ramdev’s yoga styles for them. I had to leave to avoid the inevitable unpleasantness.”
Another interesting thing that happened to him was when he was slapped by an old lady for smoking in public.
“That was a good lesson for me. She made me realize that I was known among the public and my smoking in public could badly influence others. Since then, I stopped smoking,” he laughed.
In tomorrow’s to-do list, Adhikary says he leaves the pages blank. He doesn’t want to plan because the chances of things not coming true are higher
for him.
He concluded, “We all are competing healthily amongst ourselves. Luckily, 80% of Nepali audiences are into watching teleserials than movies. And that has helped me gain a lot of popularity. I’ll be doing more teleserials. For the rest, I leave it to my fate to decide for me.”
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