"Picturex!"'Beautiful', 'picturesque', 'lovely' etc. The first sight of Kathmandu (valley) was decorated with the same exclamations and decorations by the guest-tourist. The 'Picturex' stalls in the valley are getting up and running, it is not yet open yet. When the world's 'picturex' cities are discussed, Kathmandu (in the valley) is not in the top of the list, but it is included in the footnotes.

In vintage photographs of Nepal's first professional photography house painters, the Kathmandu Valley is seen as an imagined 'Picturex'. With temples and shrines, stupas and chaityas, playgrounds, ponds, falchas, dhungedharas, farakila bata and chisa galli, jingati houses and neo-classical palaces, this valley seems like a set of a fairy tale. Kathmandu is becoming an alternative destination for those who do not want to spend crores of rupees by creating an artificial set. 

is a movie thing. The fact that Kathmandu Valley, which has only recently opened to the world and is moving to the left in terms of tourism infrastructure, could be a destination for dreamy filmmakers was perhaps beyond imagination. A 'virtual' tour of ancient Kathmandu can be enjoyed in documentaries and footage by geologist Tony Hagan and others. It is difficult to believe that this is Kathmandu when you see these properties in their glorious youth in photographs and movies in today's situation where the river has become a canal, the shopping mall and the temple have been suffocated under the roof of the 'Highrise', the pond has been washed away, the stone stream has dried up, and the well has been buried.

Kathmandu is no longer a 'mystical' (mysterious) and 'pure' (pure) place for the western countries, which are moving towards the age of technology at the speed of air due to the industrial revolution. Pictures of painter families and visiting tourists can be seen in abundance as a reminder of the antiquity and purity of Kathmandu. As a teenager, I was thrilled to see the vibrant life of the ancient city of Kathmandu on screen. When I went to the French Cultural Center in Baghbazar to learn French during the long vacation of SLC, I was blown away when I saw Kathmandu of the 60s on the big screen, that too in colorful art. The shooting of 'Tribulations of a Chinaman in China', starring French movie action and comedy legend John Paul Belmado, took place in Nepal along with China. This movie covering Nepal including Kathmandu Valley, Pokhara and Namche was released in 1965. The first time I saw 'Picturex' Kathmandu in action was in Belmado's movie.

is not that Kathmandu has not been seen running through 'Hare Rama Hare Krishna' starring Dev Anand. Released in 1971, 'Hare Rama Hare Krishna' had a hippie as its main subject, and foreign faces and western lifestyles were seen on the screen. However, because Belmado's film was shot before the hippies left Nepal, Kathmandu was seen on the screen as a rustic and crystal clear lifestyle. 

The locals of Kathmandu and our generation used to tell many stories about the filming of Dev Anand's film rather than the film itself. We Kishor used to hear stories of director-actor Anand's craze and crowd management during shooting. However, all the Nepalis were unaware of the height of Belmado. Jean Paul Belmedo (1933–2021) is a leading and all-time popular actor of the 1960s French 'New Wave' of cinema. Belamdo was a famous hero of the "action-thriller" genre called "Police" in French.

When I was in high school, Kathmandu was hit by a terrible earthquake with Bombay as its epicenter. The news that Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan is coming to Kathmandu for shooting spread like wildfire. Within a few days, the team including Amitabh landed in Kathmandu and coincidentally the main characters of the film took shelter in the recently opened five-star Sheraton (now Hotel Everest) in the city. What do we want now? A stone's throw away from home is the hotel where Amitabh and Zeenat Aman stay. The pick-up-drop point of Siddharth Vanasthali's school bus was right next to the gate of Sheraton. In the morning, we gathered around the hotel gate like satyagraha for a glimpse of Amitabh and Zeenat in their school uniforms. It wasn't summer until the bus honked its horn. When we came back from school, we used to walk straight to the door of the hotel and only after the night fell and we were starving. Maybe this same routine of day, morning and evening  The

kept repeating. Even though we were on duty at the hotel gate all day on holidays, we never had the chance to see the 'stars' of the screen with our naked eyes. We friends were satisfied when we finally watched Amitabh starrer 'Mahan' (1983) at Patan's Ashok cinema hall. 

Kathmandu's charm is not limited to neighboring India or France. Hollywood director Bernardo Vetrolucci wanted to make a biography of Siddharth Gautam after the last emperor of China won the Academy Award in 9 different categories for the above movie 'The Last Emperor' (1987). He chose a 'real location' rather than a studio to depict the Shakya Janapada of the fifth century BC. Vetroluchi came to Nepal with a filming team after finding the 2500-year-old antiquity in Bhaktapur. He added some 'props' to the existing heritage as per the script. There is no one who is not amazed by the 'touch' given by Vetrolucci. 

In the set of 'The Little Buddha' (year 1992) prepared by him, it was hard for the visitors and even the local devotees to distinguish which were real slabs and frames and which were fake fiber glass. During the filming period, there was a fair of set watchers in Bhaktapur. Perhaps after listening to Vetroluchi's set, the then Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala himself reached Bhaktapur. Even now, the memory of my finger twitching when I visited with my friends and lied about the real statue as fiber glass is still fresh.

Buddhist monk Zhongsar Khentse Rimpoche, who assisted Vetroluchi as an assistant director in 'The Little Buddha', later became famous as a film director under the name Khentse Norbu. What a coincidence, three decades after becoming an assistant director in 'The Little Buddha', he produced 'Looking for a Lady with Fang and a Mustaj' ('Dakini' in the Nepali version) using Kathmandu Valley as a location.

After the Nepal premiere of the 19th edition of the Kathmandu International Mountain Film Festival (KIMF), I had a 'Zoom' conversation with director Norbu and asked, 'Rimpoche, most of the frames of your films are in wide angle, why?'. Rimpoche replied with a smile, 'Your city is so beautiful that I don't want to take close-ups.' Rimpoche approved the 'picturerex' character of Kathmandu.

Like Vetrolucchi, another Academy (Lifetime Award) winner Satyajit Ray was also not untouched by Kathmandu's 'Picturex' Ada. In the mid-80s, Ray went to Kathmandu for some shooting of his spy series 'Feluda'. He came to Kathmandu along with Bollywood actor Shashi Kapoor, who played the character of 'Feluda', for some parts of Doordarshan's TV series 'Kissa Kathmandu'.