Neer Bikram Shah, also known as Nir Shah, is a Nepalese film actor, director, producer, poet, songwriter, and businessman. He is considered one of the leading actors in Nepali cinema history and an actor with multiple identities.[1] He is related to the royal family of Nepal.[2]
Neer Shah is the producer or co-producer of many Nepali movies. He has also directed several Nepali movies produced by himself, including Basudev, Pachchis Basanta, Basanti, and a Nepal Bhasa movie Rajamati.[3][4] He is also a co-producer of the Oscar-nominated film Himalaya – l'enfance d'un chef, which was co-produced and directed by the French movie maker Eric Valli.[5] The film, also released as Caravan (in Canada) and Himalaya (in Denmark and France), was the first film from Nepal to win an Oscar nomination.[6]
Shah has also played antagonistic as well as other character roles in movies such as Prem Pinda and Balidan. He has also appeared in a few Bollywood movies as a guest artist. Shah has also penned down many Nepali and Nepal Bhasa songs. He has also done the scriptwriting for a few of his films.
In 2001, he served on the jury of Film South Asia '01, the festival of South Asian documentaries, along with Firdous Azim and Shyam Benegal.[7]
Shah was the first head and founder of Nepal Television (NTV), the first TV station in Nepal, and is the chairman of Shangri-La TV (STV), a film production and microwave TV distribution company.[9][10] STV produced many programmes for NTV and also provided the cable television network in Kathmandu valley. Shah holds 33 per cent equity in a United Kingdom-based firm, Galaxy, which is involved in telecasting Nepalese TV channels overseas.[2] Along with Nirmal Nicholas Paul, he set up a production company called "888 Films", that produces Nepalese and Hindi films.[6] Another of his companies, National Studio, provides training in various fields of cinema production.[11] He is also one of the proprietors of New Century Pictures Pvt.Ltd., a film production company.[12] Shah also serves on the Governing Council of College of Journalism and Mass Communication in Nepal.[13]
In 2002, he was felicitated by the Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation in recognition of his contribution in the "promotion of Nepalese art and culture and tourism industry".[14]
One of his two brothers, Kumar Khadga Bikram Shah, was married to one of three former King Gyanendra Shah's sisters, Princess Sharada Shah. Both his brother and sister-in-law were killed in the infamous Royal Massacre of 2001.[15]
His other brother is Lalit Bikram Shah.
