(Gauri Malla, main actress)
Is “Singha Durbar” going to be a Nepali equivalent for “House of Cards”, with a more positive message?
This morning I came across the news that Search for Common Ground Nepal is preparing new series, in cooperation with USAID and Mila Productions, which will tell a story of a first female Prime Minister of “post-constitutional” Nepal. As parties involved are interested in peace-building and conflict-prevention, a lot of the series is supposed to be about struggling for transparency, accountability and collaborative leadership. Viewers will be also given insight into governmental mechanisms, different tensions and interests that shape country’s politics, and so on.
As the series are about to be released in September, it means some decisions about what “post-constitutional” order to depict were already taken. At the same time, Nepal is making some progress towards deciding on a constitution - this week 4 main parties agreed on a set of very important aspects of the document. They will develop the idea of federal state (a special commission that needs to be formed now will have 6 months to come up with detailed proposal) and parliamentary democracy. Although the expected promulgation of the new constitution is scheduled for mid-July, according to media this seems quite unlikely.
I wonder if there will be the post-constitutional Nepal while the series will screened - and to what extent will the fiction be similar to reality. And if it will shape people’s preparedness for more equal distribution of genders in the politics and indeed promote cooperative and ethical ways. I’m just really curious to see the series and the context in which they will appear in national TV channels.
