KATHMANDU: Binod Paudel, Director of Bulbul, is making a new feature film ‘Rubber City’ soon.

To be shot in the United States, this film is a story of the struggles of Bhutanese refugees who languished in Nepal for over a decade, and later resettled in the US.

The “Rubber City” team shared the poster on social media on December 1.

Abeeral Thapa, one of the producers of the film, said that the shooting of the entire film will be done in the US and will include actors Sushank Mainali, Bikram Kumar Sharma, and Radha Sharma Lamsal, among others.

Mainali will be seen in the leading role.

Director Paudel had been trying to get grants for this movie for years, and that he had even pitched the project in Busan Asian Project Market in 2019.

However, owing to the Covid-19 and pandemic, the project was delayed because of which he had to wait to receive grants.

Thapa said Kirtana Banskota, Abeeral Thapa, Yatin Parkhani, Bhakta Rijal, and Raju Paudel will be producing this movie.

Awaken Productions and Banskota Productions will collaborate on this project.

The movie’s initial budget has been estimated at US$500 thousand which roughly translates to six crore Nepali rupees.

Poudel’s first movie “Bulbul”, released in 2019 had bagged several awards including the Best Director National Award.

It was also officially submitted to the 93rd Academy Award under the best foreign-language category from Nepal.

Paudel said that he is looking for other actors for the movie.

“We are trying to introduce some new faces in this movie,” he said adding, “We want to encourage Nepalis residing in the US who have the potential to act but have never worked in films.”

The movie team is doing an audition for the female lead of around 24 or 25 years of age this month.

Ankit Poudel, whose short film was selected in the Sundance film festival in 2020, will be capturing the film as the DOP.

Thapa said that they plan to complete the “Rubber City” by 2022. He added that the post-production work will be done in the US and India.

The movie will be premiered in film festivals around the globe and then it will be released in Nepal.