Dhungana—who has studied filmmaking at the Prague Film School, in the Czech Republic—is mostly known for his work as a producer (he produced Kagbeni and Sano Sansar in 2008). He has directed short films before, but with Suntali—for which he dons the producer’s hat too—he has finally decided go big. But not by going the tried and tested masala route: the film’s protagonists are women, the story is more fantasy than reality and the narrative draws on familiar tales from Nepalis’ lived experiences, rather than film formulae.

The film was created under the Blue Poppy Films banner and is the production house’s first film. Jaya Shah and Prachanda Shrestha, who are part of the company, also worked as producers for the film. The story for Suntali was written by Prawin Adhikari. The director of photography is Ondra Belica, the film score was created by Robert Jisa and the song-lyricist is Jason Kunwar.