Basudev (1984)

Interesting facts

Basudev is a 1984 Nepali language film, adapted from Dhruba Chandra Gautam's Kattel Sarko Chotpatak by Neer Shah in his directorial debut. The film starred Harihar Sharma as the eponymous character, with Shakuntala Sharma, Subhadra Adhikari, Krishna Malla, Sharmila Malla and director Shah himself in supporting roles, while Madan Krishna Shrestha and Hari Bansha Acharya were credited as guest actors. While the film was a critical and commercial success, it was criticised by some for its departure from the source material; Dhruba Chandra Gautam expressed disappointment at the film for being markedly different from the script he had written for the film.

Production

Basudev was produced under the banner of Manakamana Films. According to director Shah, Basudev was the first film to be made from a domestically produced script. The film scripts were, until then, written by Bollywood writers. Neer Shah, having a strong belief that the way to uplift Nepali cinema was to build stories and scripts from Nepali writers themselves, decided to make such a film himself.

The film began its principal photography in 1982. According to director Shah, the Information Department had delivered damaged raw stocks which compromised the quality of filming. As the first Nepali film to be shot in 16 mm, which needed to be converted to 35 mm, the damaged raw stock severely hampered the video. The popular song Yatri adapted from the eponymous poem by Laxmi Prasad Devkota was recorded in Mumbai, sung by Rabin Sharma.

The production budget of the film was Rs 1.4 Million. Rs 350 thousand was invested by Neer Shah, another 350 thousand was borrowed from Shah's friends and the remaining 700 thousand was invested by Binod Chaudhary.

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