Comedian Prabhat Lama's Viral Mimicry of Youth Leader Sudan Gurung Sparks Praise and Controversy

Kathmandu. A long coat, a different hairstyle, and round black-framed glasses. Scrolling through social media, a picture with this appearance is currently going viral. At first glance, many assume this picture belongs to youth leader Sudan Gurung.

But no, the person is not Sudan, but comedian Prabhat Lama, who presented himself in Gurung's likeness. Lama appeared as 'Sudan Gurung' in the latest episode of the reality show 'Comedy Night With Champions'. Since the show's release, Prabhat has been widely praised for his exact imitation and mimicry of Sudan. Clips and pictures of his performance have flooded Facebook and TikTok.

Why was this character created? Prabhat shares, 'My friends had been commenting for a long time that my face resembles Sudan's.' He continues, 'When it was confirmed that leader Mahesh Basnet would be the guest on 'Comedy Night', I decided to make the famous dispute between Sudan Gurung and Mahesh Basnet the subject of satire.' Prabhat explains that he adopted Sudan's character to satirically portray the political tussle between the two figures on screen.

Makeup artist Binod Shrestha worked hard to make him look like Sudan. In particular, finding the exact long coat that Sudan wears was very difficult. 'The coat had to be exactly the same; I was afraid it wouldn't be managed, but eventually, it was managed,' he recounts.

According to Prabhat, more effort went into capturing Sudan's voice and style than his looks. He prepared himself by watching many old videos of Sudan to replicate his distinct way of speaking, word choice, and mood-swinging demeanor. Sudan's voice has a softness and a unique fluctuation; it took him a few days to become 'perfect' at it. Prabhat mentions repeating Sudan's famous lines so the content would look good.

'Many people had asked me to do this character a while ago,' he says, 'The real question was whether I could be perfect with the vocal delivery and his art.'

Prabhat is very excited by the reaction and attention received for portraying Sudan's character. The biggest reaction came from Sudan Gurung himself. Commenting on the video Prabhat posted on social media, he wrote, 'More Sudan is seen in this video than I am!'

Prabhat considers receiving such a reaction from the real-life subject of his character the biggest achievement for an artist. He is an artist who has recently been portraying exact getups and voices of different characters in comedy. Previously, he has successfully caricatured figures like Harka Sampang, Mahabir Pun, Rajesh Hamal, Deepak Raj Giri, and Aftab Alam.

This time, the character of Sudan Gurung was linked with the character of Prime Minister Sushila Karki. Karma Lama appeared as Prime Minister Karki. Although Karma is male, he frequently appears in female roles on the show. Karma is also the writer for the show. When Prabhat announced he would become Sudan Gurung, Karma suggested adding the character of Prime Minister Karki.

He covered the widespread pressure on Prime Minister Karki regarding the citizenship controversy in the 'Prime Minister' character. He satirized the issue of paracetamol shortage in Karnali symbolically.

'Comedy is a soft but sharp weapon. We tried to alert the establishment based on logic,' says Prabhat, 'We also questioned some shortcomings of the program's guest, Mahesh Basnet.'

Prabhat shared his experience that Basnet accepted the criticism of his shortcomings with good humor and enjoyed it.

Threats When Mahesh Basnet Was Guest

The show became controversial after CPN-UML Secretary Mahesh Basnet participated as a guest in the episode where Prabhat portrayed Sudan Gurung. The program and the guest have been subjected to indiscriminate verbal abuse on social media. Consequently, the show's director and host, Bishal Bhandari, warned that legal action would be sought against those engaging in abuse.

'Setting aside our opinions and support, in the process of running 'Comedy Night With Champions' impartially, we invited leaders from Rastriya Swatantra Party 3 times, RPP once, Congress once, Unified Socialist once, and CPN-UML once,' he continued, 'We have been attacked on social media by the opposing side every time we invited a leader from one party. This is nothing new.'

However, he also stated that the young men and women of the G20 group, who had protested against corruption, nepotism, individualism, and party syndicates, had hurled abuses just by watching the trailer of the episode featuring Mahesh Basnet.

'Is this the society and government we sought to build? Where the program must only invite guests from a specific party? Where only the old must be mocked and the new deified? Where only the old must be mimicked, and the new cannot be? Probably not! We envisioned a society where we have the right to question, speak, and joke, seeking change,' he continued, 'I reiterate, we are proponents of change. But we request leaders and cadres of all parties not to stop, obstruct, or intimidate us from operating the program democratically and impartially by setting aside ideology. However, we also want to warn that if this intimidation does not stop, we will be forced to seek legal recourse.'