Profile details

Madan Krishna Shrestha

Actor

Madan Krishna Shrestha is an actor, comedian, singer, writer, and director who specialises in socially focused satire with Hari Bansha Acharya through MaHa Jodi. Shrestha entered professional performance through music. In interviews, he has recalled passing Radio Nepal's voice test before becoming known for songs in Nepal Bhasa and Nepali. Early broadcasts also carried his voice beyond Nepal through All India Radio and Doordarshan, while songs such as *Arabau Manchheharuma*, *Kholawari Kholapari*, and *Sayathari Baja* remained part of his performing repertoire. This musical foundation continued alongside his later work in comedy, acting, writing, and direction. Around 1980, Shrestha began the long partnership with Hari Bansha Acharya that became MaHa Jodi. The collaboration moved between live satire, radio, television, film, and music, allowing the pair to build recurring characters while responding to contemporary public life. Programmes including *15 Gate*, *Laal Purja*, and *Madan Bahadur Hari Bahadur* placed political and social situations inside comedy-drama. In *Madan Bahadur Hari Bahadur*, Shrestha's Madan Bahadur became the steadier counterweight to Hari Bahadur's opportunism, making the relationship between the characters central to the satire. The stage production *Maha Jatra 2071* extended the approach through sketches about leadership, corruption, border tensions, and ethnic conflict. Film expanded Shrestha's work across performance and authorship. His early screen appearances included *Basudev* (1984) and *Silu* (1987), followed by roles in films such as *Truck Driver* (1994), *Rajamati* (1996), and *Balidaan* (1997). In *Rajamati*, he played Taremam Shakya, the title character's father; in *Balidaan*, he portrayed a dispirited retired captain as the story examined resistance to the Panchayat system. His off-camera credits include story work on *Ke Ghar Ke Dera* (1985), directing *Filim* (1999), and directing and writing *216777, Ghas Katne Khurkera Aayo Joban Hurkera* (2009). He later appeared in *Shatru Gate* (2018), *Daal Bhat Tarkari* (2019), and *Mahapurush* (2022), sustaining a screen career that could move from comedy into family and political drama. Madan Puraskar Guthi jointly presented Shrestha and Acharya with the Jagadamba Shree honour for 2046 BS, recognising the MaHa partnership as a shared contribution. Shrestha later turned his own history into the memoir *MaHa ko Ma*, launched in 2017. The book follows his life from childhood into performance and the development of his collaboration with Acharya, giving the musical, theatrical, and screen work a first-person account. Together, the institutional honour and memoir mark both the public reach of MaHa and Shrestha's individual path through it. Screen work remained active in later years, including *Paran* (2025), *Pahaad* (2026), and *Gauthali* (2026). *Mahapurush* had already placed Shrestha and Acharya together in a family drama, while the newer films continued his presence in ensemble stories beyond the pair's television characters. Music also returned to the foreground when he came back to the Paleti stage in 2026 after an eighteen-year interval. The performances connected an early identity as a vocalist with an audience that also knew him through MaHa's comedy and films. The 2026 Paleti programme featured *Arabau Manchheharuma*, *Kholawari Kholapari*, *Phulbutte Sari*, and *Sayathari Baja*.