Not possible to even reach Everest base camp without guidance of Sherpas: actor Manisha Koirala

PTI, Nov 24, 2024, 11:20 AM IST

Panaji: It’s impossible to even reach the Everest base camp, let alone summit the peak, without the guidance of the Sherpas, says actor Manisha Koirala, who is happy the community is getting its due on screen.

Nepal-born Koirala said she often feels “horrible” about the sad livelihood of the Sherpas, who predominantly serve as guides for climbers hoping to scale the world’s tallest peaks at extreme altitudes in the Himalayan region.

She was speaking at an in-conversation session with English documentary filmmaker Lucy Walker and veteran director Shekhar Kapur at the ongoing International Film Festival of India (IFFI) here.

“I did a base camp trek. I realised the value of Sherpas because it’s just not possible to even go to the base camp without them. You need their guidance and wisdom. Their livelihood is so sad, I feel horrible,” Koirala said on Saturday.

The actor praised Walker for her 2023 documentary “Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa” for showcasing the Sherpas.

“Now, there are a lot of people who are supporting the Sherpa community and they’re being recognised by so many people like her (Walker). Other people are also talking about them,” she said.

The Sherpas are the ones “creating the ladders” to go up the mountains, added Kapur.

“The Sherpas are the ones who go out at three in the morning and create the ropes, and then everybody who has paid USD 40,000-50,000 trudge along and say, ‘Hey, we went to Everest.’ No, you didn’t. Somebody pulled you along. We have to understand that as the Sherpas, it’s like, racist, right?” the filmmaker said.

Walker said Bollywood and Hollywood films are “fantastic”, but oftentimes they tell the same story, adding viewers can sometimes discover real life in a documentary.

“When you watch real life (unfolding in front of you), you can sometimes see a new story of new characters,” she added.

Walker is also known for acclaimed documentaries such as 2006’s “Blindsight”, which follows six Tibetan teenagers on their journey to climb the 23,000 foot Lhakpa Ri mountain in the shadow of Mount Everest, and “Waste Land”, a 2010 film about a lively group of workers who salvage recyclable materials from the garbage to make contemporary art.

“With documentaries, you have this opportunity to introduce the audience to the people they have never met in real life and maybe didn’t have the chance to meet. But they get a chance to meet somebody outside their comfort zone… This is the way the world gets more understanding, and this is the way we expand our circle of empathy,” she said.

Walker also said she and Kapur were discussing doing a project which was sort of like “turning around” Danny Boyle’s multiple award-winning feature film “Slumdog Millionaire” (2008) into a documentary by handing over the cameras to people in Dharavi, Asia’s largest slum.

“We wanted kids in Dharavi to make a movie, write the movie, and act in the movie. We wanted to shoot how they make the film, how they decide the whole process. So, we have a documentary about them making a feature film and then we could release a feature film,” Kapur, who serves as IFFI festival director, explained.