With lodges on each side and empty streets, this side of Kalanki seems almost deserted. Defying the silence, in front of one of the lodges is a huge van with electronic equipments. Around it are people, some running in and out of the hotel’s entrance.[break]
A young girl clad in red saree and two ponytails gets a glimpse outside and quickly returns to reading a piece of paper.
The crowd is largely a mixture of Nepalis and Americans, everyone busy saying or doing something when all of a sudden the entrance doors to the hotel rooms are slammed and once again silence prevails.
The crew of “Brave Girl” has been busy doing their shoot at the venue for the past two days.
The shooting which began from September 16 is scheduled to end by October 2. The film is a 30-minute fiction depicting the journey of a young girl from her village home to a brothel in Mumbai, India.
Directed by Erin Galey, a native of Fox Chapel in Pittsburgh, USA, the film has a Nepali technical crew and a Nepali producer, Binod Adhikari.
Erin, a film student at the Singapore campus of New York University’s (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts, is working on “Brave Girl” which will be her thesis. For the project, she has already committed two years of research.
Although Erin had always wanted to make a film in Nepal, the initial story idea was that of kayaking.
She wanted to film the Himalayan Adventure Girls, a non-profit organization running with the purpose of encouraging Nepali women to participate in the outdoors industry as guides and instructors.
While discussing the story with Inka Trollsas, a Swedish kayaker who also runs the Himalayan Adventure Girls, the topic of trafficking in girls and women came up as an interesting subject to deal with.
“It seemed to me that the issue needed immediate attention, and kayaking could wait,” she says as she talks to us during her five-minute break.
Through Inka, she met Binod Adhikari, her current producer and also team leader for Film Himalaya, an organization dedicated to making documentaries, video productions and other freelance projects. From then on, there was no looking back.
Binod helped Erin with all the necessary research. From meeting Anuradha Koirala of Maiti Nepal, who is the vocal supporter of the project, to visiting villages and Nepal-India borders, Erin and Binod have done all they could.
“I’ve been to Chitwan, Janakpur, Gorkha and a few other places,” exclaims Erin. During her trips, she heard a lot of stories from girls who had been sold and bought back, and from relatives and parents of those who have not yet returned.
“Being a local of Chitwan proved to be of immense help as the villagers opened up and shared with us their stories on the subject which otherwise is not widely discussed,” says Binod.
Another interesting aspect of the movie is that the funds required were collected through donors who were asked for help online.
Through a website and Facebook, the crew conducted a fundraising campaign, succeeding to raise US$31,239for the filming.
“I’m managing only the last-minute costs,” Binod says as he clears some bills at the hotel . The actors in the film are Nepalis and Indians.
While there are a few known faces like Anup Baral from Nepal and Tillotama Shome who portrayed Alice in Mira Nair’s Monsoon Wedding, and Sheeba Chadha, well known for her roles in Delhi 6, Parzania, and Murder, among other movies, all the other lead actors are first-timers.
Jeewan Adhikari plays the male lead, and Albina Dahal is the Brave Girl. Amidst the intense energy-sapping heat, these youngsters displayed such liveliness and dedication that was difficult to not notice.
Thrilled about acting in the movie, Albina exclaimed, “I had never been a part of any theatrical or any other acting project in school, and still they selected me,” adding, “I need to live up to their expectation, and so I’m doing my best.”
She was selected through auditions Erin and Binod conducted at various schools. “I faced five rounds of auditions before getting the role,” Albina said.
Jeewan, on the other hand, is a student under Anup Baral, and had to go through a similar process.
“I didn’t personally refer him to this film. He made it himself,” says Baral who plays the role of a police officer in the movie, and believes the young actor can do justice to the role.
Asked about the release of the movie, Erin informs that they are looking for a few festivals to shoot for now. “Once we have distributors, it’ll definitely hit the theatres,” Erin smiles.
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