Nepal UK
A UK-based dentist turned director has won a Best Director honour in France for a Nepali film about child marriage and a daughter's right to education, and says it has now been selected as a semi-finalist at another international festival.
For roughly three decades, Dr Kapil Rijal has worked in dentistry in the United Kingdom. This month, his name appeared on an international film awards list.
On 12 October 2026, it was reported that Rijal had won Best Director (Man) at the Autumn Edition of the RED Movie Awards 2026 in France, for the Nepali feature Gauthali. Rijal describes the awards as the "Reims Excellence Director" honours. Within days, he announced further news on his Facebook page: Gauthali has been selected for the semi-finalist list at the World Film Festival Cannes.
In his post, he wrote that the achievements belong to "the entire Gauthali family": the cast, the crew, the BR Production team and everyone who believed in the story. He closed with the line: "Gauthali's journey continues — rooted in Nepal, reaching for the world!"
Gauthali did not begin as a commercial idea. Rijal's father, Dr Bhola Rijal, a physician, lyricist and film producer, made an earlier Gauthali as a musical story, drawing partly on the childhood of Rijal's mother. Rijal says his mother married at 12 and his father at 15.
The new film keeps the heart of that story but updates it. Rijal says it centres on child marriage, which he notes persists in Nepal despite being illegal, along with gender discrimination in education and growing emotional pressure on young people. The film follows a woman's struggles, including how her life changes after marriage and her unfulfilled dreams. Simran Khadka plays the title role opposite Arun Chhetri, with Madan Krishna Shrestha and Prakash Ghimire among the cast. The screenplay is credited to Kapil Rijal, Nishchal Kunwar, Neeraj Nepal and Giriraj Ghimire. Rijal co-produced with Suman Giri, and says all the work was done in Nepal.
Rijal's route was not direct. He has been drawn to theatre and film since school and college, where he wrote, acted in and directed plays, and he took a film-direction course while living in the UK. His directorial debut, Harry Ki Pyari, was released in early 2023. He is candid about it: he says it was not a commercial success and that he takes responsibility for that.
"To create something new, one has to take some risks," he says. He founded BR Production to support creative people in Nepal, and has said he wants to tell authentic local stories. It is the production house he thanked in his latest post.
Gauthali opened across Nepal in July. Large crowds gathered at Ranjana Cineplex in New Road, Kathmandu, and many viewers were moved by the lead character's struggle and the film's message about a daughter's education. In August the film opened in more than two dozen UK locations from 7 August. The production team reported some sold-out shows and strong support from the Nepalese community, and said English subtitles drew second-generation viewers. In July, the film's US rights were reported sold to Seven Seas International Films.
Whatever the outcome in the competitions, the story is worth noting. A Nepali film about child marriage and girls' education, drawn from a family's real history, has travelled from Kathmandu's New Road to UK multiplexes and, according to its director, onto international festival lists. It was made by a diaspora professional who brought his father's storytelling inheritance to the screen.
For Nepalese communities in Britain, it is a reminder that diaspora contributions are not only remittances or professional achievement, but also stories that reach home and travel back again.
