Profile details

Arpan Thapa

Director

Arpan Thapa, the director of *Ghar* (2019), has worked across Nepali cinema as an actor, writer and director since his 2011 debut in *Sick City*. He trained as an actor in Mumbai, India, before returning to Nepal to start his career. Before he began acting, Thapa worked in a Kathmandu DVD shop, which he has said helped him learn what audiences wanted to watch. He has said he waited roughly six years before taking his first film role, turning down work until he found a project he found creatively satisfying. He played the lead role of Krishna in *Sick City* (2011), a drama about poverty and the drug trade in Thamel, directed by Murray Kerr. The following year he wrote and starred in *Dhanda* (2012), a revenge thriller co-directed with Sudarshan Thapa. He wrote and directed *Mukhauta* (2014), a gangster drama set in Thamel, co-written with Pratik Gurung and starring Sunil Thapa, Rajesh Hamal and Dayahang Rai. For his work on *Maun* (2014), as both writer and lead actor, he won the Critics Award at the Dcine Award. He wrote and directed *Aadha Love* (2017) and the horror film *Sunkesari* (2018), then directed *Ghar* (2019); reviewers at the time found *Ghar*'s characters thin despite its scares, while others said the film balanced familiar fears with humour. Alongside acting and directing, Thapa has said he admires the actor Daniel Day-Lewis. He most recently appeared in the 2025 film *The Blue Light*.