Gyanendra Deuja

Gyanendra Bahadur Deuja
Born	(1967-05-05) May 5, 1967 Kapan, Nepal
Nationality	Nepali
Years active	1997 - Present
Children	Sulav Pratik Deuja Samikshya Deuja

Gyanendra Deuja (born 5 May 1967) (Nepali: ज्ञानेन्द्र देउजा) is a Nepali film writer and director.^[1][2] He directed his first movie in 1997, Rakshak^[3] where the first underwater action scene was directed. He then started a trend of adding one extra feature in his all movies that had never been shot before. He is known for his movie Muna Madan (Nepali: मुनामदन)^[4] based on the poem written by Laxmi Prasad Devkota^[5] and Muna Madan.^[6][7] This movie was Nepal's submission for Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars in 2004.^[8] He is known for his shooting with different camera angles and a different overall presentation in his films. As of May 2016, he is making his latest film, Buddha Born in Nepal,^[9] which is a story of a struggling Nepali student In America.^[10] The Nepali student in the film was being taught that Gautama Buddha was born in India.^[11] The student knew that this was wrong and changed the course manual by standing up and saying that he knew that the Buddha was born in Nepal.^[12]

Early life

Gyanendra Deuja was born in Kapan, Nepal. He is the youngest of two sons and two daughters of Mr dev bahadur Deuja and late mrs kanchi deuja. His father is a farmer, formerly in the Nepalese Army. He went to school at the Pashupati School in Chabahil, and to college at the Nepal Commerce Campus in Minbhawan.

He is married to Rosani Adhikari Deuja and is father of a son sulav pratik deuja and a daughter Samikshya deuja. Apart from being a writer and a director mr deuja is also a professional banker working as assistant director in Nepal Rastra bank – the central bank of Nepal since 1988.

While he was doing his undergraduate program, he was involved in theater called aarohan (nepali:आरोहण) now called gurukul (nepali: गुरुकुल) where he got acquainted with senior actors and directors such as sunil pokharel, saroj khanal, badri adhikari narayan puri and so on. The desire of being an actor changed into being a director after being impressed by the technical part of the theater and film making

Career

With the establishment of Nepal television in early '80s most of the theater artist were motivated in making daily soaps for the television. He also got on the whim and started doing small roles and work as production assistant. when he was doing some educational awareness program for the TV, he met Resh Raj Aacharya - a senior movie director who later mentored him. Mr Deuja worked as chief assistant director in tele serials like sparsh, dushman, aama etc. and larger celluloid movies like Tuhuro, Bandhan, Aama of Mr Aacharya.

His first directorial venture was ‘rakshak’ 1997 which was shot for the first time under water in the history of nepali cinema, and since his very first movie mr Deuja is known for doing innovative experiments while making a movie. His films were basically based on contemporary social issues which triggers the human mind to think about the mis-happenings of the society. Rakshak was a highly controversial movie as it had picked maoist issues and was released during the civil war. Rakshak was followed by ‘gorkhali’ and ‘daghbatti’ in the late nineties and early 2000’s. Then he did ‘muna – madan’ based on an epic love poem by the great poet lakshmi prasad devkota (nepali: महाकवि लक्ष्मीप्रसाद देवकोटा). It was the biggest movie of its time, which was nominated for the 76th academy awards of 2004 on foreign language category and was also screened on palm springs film festival the same year. Muna madan was a highly talked about movie in an international platform by media like deccan herald and migyul – New York post.

Deuja is a graduate of the Tribhuvan University Of Nepal. He graduated as a Bachelor of Commerce.

He has worked as an assistant director at the Nepal Rastra Bank (Central Bank of Nepal) since 1988.

Filmography

Television

Deuja has also done work in television:

• Golmaal,^[25]
• Aankna Khulyo,
• Ghaito Ma Gham,
• Shayogi,
• Asal Upaya,
• Kamaiya.

Awards

· Nomination of Muna-Madan in 76thOscar Awards-2003

· Participated in Palm springs film festival- 2004

· Prakash Thapa Memorial Award- 2007 Awarded for the most successful Director of the Year for the movie Dewar-Babu (from Nepal films producers association)

· KTV Film Award -2008 Awarded as the Best Director for the movie Dewar-Babu.

· 5th NEFTA TTV Award-2011 Nominated in Best director category for the movie Rana-Sangram.

· Samjhana digital film award- 2010 Nominated in Best Director category for the movie Hifajat

References

External links

• Gyanendra Deuja at the Internet Movie Database
• Interview - Gyanendra Deuja