In 2014, The Next (Nepalese Extreme), a group of Sydney-based Nepali dancers led by Pradeep Lama, uploaded their first video on YouTube—a dance sequence accompanying the popular song Jaalma. The video was something seldom attempted before in the Nepali music sphere and the team’s effort was rewarded with an overwhelming number of views and followings—the video crossed one million views in merely a week; and today The Next has over 28,000 subscribers 

on YouTube. So far, the troupe has released five videos—dance covers to songs like Mai Nache Chham Chhami, Funtastic, Mitho and, recently, to Yo Ke Vayo (which has been viewed more than 130,000 times in a week)—all of which have been viewed and circulated extensively. To talk about the group’s rising star and their new-found fame, The Post’s Anup Ojha caught up with Lama, who is the director and choreographer of The Next. Excerpts: 

How was The Next initiated? 

In 2012, during a dance party organised by some Nepalis in Sydney, I had a dance battle with Amit Bajracharya. There, I came to know that he was an avid hip-hop lover like myself.

Once the battle was over, we became friends who often met to talk about everything-dance and explored how we could connect to millions of dance lovers like ourselves—especially Nepalis. We eventually planned on doing dance covers to popular Nepali songs and soon, three of my friends, Saajia Meya, Prabha Dawadi and Surakshya Thapa, joined in. In 2015, we finally came together as a group to rehearse for Jaalma and uploaded the video on YouTube.

Your first dance cover was received very well—with more than one million views in a week—not a meagre feat for Nepali artists. Had you expected such quick and massive recognition? How did the team respond?

I can’t express in words, how we felt about getting the overwhelming response from audiences across the globe. Hundreds of messages of appraisals in social media, and soaring number of views, likes, and shares—it was all beyond our wildest imaginations. Looking back at it now, I feel, it was all a reward for our passion and dedication towards our work and those countless sleepless nights we spent practicing, despite working 70 hours every week. 

Three months after you uploaded your first video, while the video was still trending, your channel was terminated. How did you deal with the blow? 

We had over three million viewers and 7,000 subscribers. And one unfortunate day, we lost it all. We are still unaware of the cause. Back then, we weren’t well-acquainted with YouTube’s policies and applications, while a few people illicitly made money by merely uploading our video to their channels.

You can still find these channels that boast millions of viewers on our video. Initially we were upset, but we treated it as a challenge. We became ever more dedicated to rise above it. Today we are familiar with technical and operational aspects of YouTube. Now, The Next has decided to choreograph dance videos for our own songs, so that we do not have to fear copyright issues.

So far The Next has come up with five dance covers in two years time. As you said, everyone works for 70 hours a week and most of your crew members are students. How do you manage? 

Some of us are students and rest of us are working at least 70 hours per week, so, it takes us a minimum of five months to complete a project. Managing the space to practise is as difficult as managing the time to do so. We can’t afford to hire a dance room and using open spaces is not allowed.

Our 12-member crew has booked an apartment—fondly naming it the ‘Mad House’—in Sydney, that accommodates all kinds of artists. The Mad House does not sleep at night because the artists busy in their own endeavours in the off-hours. We shove aside all the furniture—sofa, dining table, chairs—in the house to make some room to practise. 

These are all performed and shot in Australia. What are some of the other  challenges? 

The production cost is really high here; we need to pay for every spot for shooting. The weather is also unpredictable. Life is really tough for immigrant artists like us as we also have personal hitches—we need to work for a living and have to support families back home—which makes it hard for us to fully delve into our passions. Yet, we are utilising whatever resources we have, and are giving our best efforts.

What future plans does the crew have?

We aspire to initiate our own production house here and be more professionally equipped. The ultimate goal is clear, no matter what we do; the purpose behind it shall be promoting Nepali music. We are also going to come up with original music and original dance sequences. 

We are also taking a shot at reality television shows such as Australia’s Got Talent and So You Think You Can Dance. The future looks bright, let us see what it brings!