Originally broadcast every Friday at 9 PM from Nepal Television (NTV), the series is now aired through Kantipur Television every Friday at the same time.[break]
Seven episodes of the serial have already been telecast, and the team is busy shooting for the eighth episode. Rehearsing the dialogues with his crew, Pant was busy on the sets of the series on Wednesday. The fine actor, who has stepped into his fiftieth year, directs the serial, scripts it and acts in it as well. As Mahendra Nakarmi, chief assistant director of the serial briefed him on the shots to be taken, he listened attentively and gave his own inputs.
“We aired 565 episodes of the show and it ran for more than a decade,” Pant recalled, sitting down comfortably on a wooden chair and holding up his face for makeup artist Amrit Maratha. His face was dabbed with foundation. A white tone was added to his eyebrows and moustache. The area around his eyes was shaded with a dark hue.
“I’m enacting the role of a 70-year-old man in this episode,” he clarified. His character has an ailing wife at home and all his children are abroad.
As an actor who likes to experiment with his roles, Pant has donned on the roles of a Marwari businessman and a Constituent Assembly member for earlier episodes of the series. Starting as a performer at the tender age of three, Pant has spent 47 years in the Nepali acting scene.
After HAK was shelved by NTV following, as Pant likes to refer to as the decision of the NTV management, he ventured into other small screen projects. He hosted “Anautho Pratibha” and a drug awareness related program-“Say No To Drugs”. Both programs were successful in their own right, but Pant remained shadowed.
“Audiences know me from HAK, and I had to be back,” he said. Pant was also encouraged by the program production team of Kantipur Television.
Being one of the veterans in the comedy genre, Pant is very vocal about the current trends in the Nepali comedy scene.
“I’ve always been against loud acting. We’re comedians, not clowns. Our work demands situational comedy, not the interplay of exaggerated expressions and dialogues,” he put in.
He termed HAK as a reflection of the socio-political discrepancies that exist in Nepal.
“The serial isn’t aiming for mere entertainment but using satire and humor to change the system.” He exemplified the success of this endeavor. “Recently in an episode, the issue of unreasonable taxi fares was discussed. The very next day, we were happy to read news about a dozen taxi drivers being arrested on the charge of cheating,” he said.
The same old cast of the serial has been given continuity in the new episodes as well.
“Our cast was never apart. Professionally, we might’ve been separated but we share great personal relationships. And when the idea of reviving the serial came along, my crew was more excited than I was,” he shared.
The cast ensemble includes Rama Thapaliya, Radhe Shyam Satyal, Sabin Shakya, and Narendra BC, among others.
When the shooting of the particular episode began, the flamboyant star spontaneously hunched his back, wrinkled his forehead and dragged his feet awkwardly. He was already so much into the character that he appeared to have aged gracefully just in a few minutes.
Improvising on the dialogues, he delivered several shots on target. When the shooting wrapped up after 45 minutes, Pant did not show a bit of tiredness and actively planned the next shot at the Nepal Electricity Authority office.
Discussing his work, he emphasized that he had no regrets about being an actor. And that he found it more challenging and enriching to be able to act and direct side by side.
“I feel immortal. Someone who is rich will only get to enjoy this life and be forgotten after he’s dead. But I believe people will remember me even after 100 years. Acting has bestowed on me this gift,” he proclaimed.
Besides gracing the small screen, Pant has also been signed by director Manoj Babu Pant for his film “Cashmere Galbandi.” He will be enacting the lead role in the film of a Dalit individual who has been suppressed by the society.
This particularly recorded episode of HAK, by the way, will be telecast this Friday at 9 PM on Kantipur Television.
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