The second runner-up of ‘Model Hunt Nepal 2015’ Navin Neupane aspires to be a feature film actor and establish a production house of his own. He has tried on a few different hats during his three years in Nepali entertainment industry: as a model, a video jockey (VJ) and an actor. His is a journey of passion, hard work and few setbacks that keep him down to earth.

Navin received his first exposure in modeling through ‘Model Hunt’, before becoming a VJ through ‘VJ Hunt 2016’. He joined theater only a month ago through ‘The Laraime Project –10 Years Later’. As an audience at ‘The Laraime Project – 10 Years Later’, it was mesmerizing for the audiences to see him play a gay character, who appeared to be in pain and dilemma because of his homosexuality and introvert nature. He had exuded a soaring level of confidence as he looked straight into the eyes of the audiences. Coupled with dim lights and slow music, his presentation on-stage made lasting impressions.

Navin is a 23-year-old undergraduate student of film studies from Oscar International College.  Originally from Baletakshar, Gulmi, he has worked hard to make his childhood dream of becoming an actor come true.

What prompted Navin to switch careers – from modeling, a VJ jockey to an actor—was his childhood ambition to become ‘a hero’. As a child, he was enthralled by the dramatic journey made by lead characters in movies, in terms of grooming themselves and contributing for a greater good. “That childhood desire to be a hero, in both on and off screen, remains within me and helps me face all my problems head-on,” says Navin.  His childhood inspirations were Shahrukh Khan, Daniel Davis and Leonardo DiCaprio, whose stardom fascinated him. In regards to the Nepali movie industry, he still adores the acting skills of Arpan Thapa, whose performance, he says, in ‘Mukhauta’ of 2014 and ‘Maun’ of 2016 externalized his ambition to bring an equally varied emotional response through his acting skills.  

As a side hobby, Navin ardently seeks to master his emotional responses through self-observation and improvise from them in his acting pursuit. This, he believes, will make him a more natural actor. Recalling a traumatic time in his life—specifics of which he didn’t want to share—he noticed he had become emotional and even cried a few times.

According to his self-observation, tears did not roll down his cheeks simultaneously: it was the right eye that swelled up first. Also, his upper lips and nose would flinch in a peculiarly rhythmic manner. Navin, through acting, hopes to realign his creativity and imagination to build up characters in thin air and “make two-way conversation with imaginary characters”.

Navin has also had to face few personal and professional challenges. On a personal level, he experienced frustration and anxiety of initial struggling years. He remembers being swindled a couple of times while first developing his modeling portfolio. This was especially hard for him since he had lied to his parents, and could not expect their monetary support regarding his ambition. What consequently brought his parents around was his acting project winning third position in ‘Short Film Competition 2072’ organized by the Nepali Army. Not only that, there was a time he did not have work for three months.

Being a workaholic, having nothing to do was draining on an emotional level for Navin.

His days of struggle, however, have now formed the basis of his inspiration to seek out opportunities and be the best version of himself. Navin aims to revolutionize the Nepali film industry. While the road to achieving his dream may not seem straight-forward right now, the future definitely holds success galore for a talent like Navin.