KATHMANDU: Actor Bijay Baral and actress Barsha Raut have been signed for the film Malati Mangale, produced by renowned singer Ram Krishna Dhakal. The official agreement was signed with both actors on Friday.

The movie is being produced under the banner of Rani Music International Pvt. Ltd., and will be directed by Praku Pandey. The screenplay and dialogues have been written by Sanyog Guragain, while the story has been penned by director Pandey himself. The film’s executive producer is Sagar Gyawali, and the cinematographer is Mahesh Paudel.

Bijay Basyal will design the poster, Romi Tandukar will handle editing, Krishna Bhandari will manage color grading, with lyrics by Rajendra Thapa and music composed by Rajanraj Siwakoti.

According to director Pandey, Malati Mangale is a purely family-oriented love story. He added that it’s too early to reveal detailed information about the roles of Bijay Baral and Barsha Raut.

One notable point is that both Baral and Raut have agreed not to work on any other films for about three months, dedicating that time to developing their characters for this project. Executive producer Gyawali shared that filming is scheduled to begin in the first week of Bhadra and will follow a roughly 40-day shooting schedule. The team is aiming to release the film by the end of this year.

The producer of this film, Ram Krishna Dhakal, is a legendary singer who has lent his voice to over 4,000 Nepali songs. He also has a long-standing connection with Nepali cinema. In 2001 (BS 2058), he acted in the film Aashirbad, which was produced by his guardian Gopal Karmacharya. With Malati Mangale, Dhakal steps into the role of producer for the first time.