After winning plaudits for the brining the unusual story of Hari to life and breaking the typecast for the ‘Nepali hero’ in the process, Bipin Karki is all set to bring yet another non-traditional character to screen with his new feature film Prasad. The upcoming movie, which wrapped up its principal photography this week and stars Namrataa Shrestha and Nischal Basnet alongside Karki, will be up for release in December.

As with Hari—in which Karki plays a mousy, ‘man of schedule’ whose mundane life gets tangled up in a ill-timed bank heist—Prasad will bring another novel storyline to screen, with Karki and Shrestha slated to essay a inter-caste couple struggling to conceive their first child.  

Speaking about his new venture, Karki, whose method acting of quirky characters has made him a household name, said, “At the heart of Prasad is an inter-caste marriage in which I have portrayed the role of the husband belonging to a lower caste. My approach while portraying this role, as in my previous film, is the same: I have tried to give the character some real-life resonances so that the audience can relate and empathise with him. In any project, be it in the past or now, my approach remains the same, which many have said goes against the grain of what a ‘hero’ in a Nepali film should be.”

Karki, however, acknowledges that bringing new stories to screen does not guarantee box office success. “In my last project, Hari, I played a man grappling with an identity crisis, and the film was experimental,” Karki said, “But the film didn’t fare well at the box office because maybe it required the ‘traditional’ Nepali filmgoers to adjust their tastes. Our industry is evolving and the best we can do is continue to push the narrative further until a tipping point is hopefully reached.”

The film will also see director Nischal Basnet make a comeback as an actor. “I felt like I really ‘acted’ this time. Maybe it’s because of my own maturity as an actor, but more than that, it’s because of the director,” Basnet said. He also mentioned that because the story delves into psychological conflicts between its characters, the shooting entailed plenty of retakes—once even 34 outtakes before a shot was finalised.

Having worked together in the Loot series that Basnet directed, this is the first time that Karki and Basnet—both beloved actors in their own right—will appear together on screen.

Prasad has been directed by Dinesh Raut, whose previous projects include November Rain, Classic and Parva.