“The kindness of strangers kept me going in the darkest days. Now I want to pay it forward”

From being born to privilege in Nepal’s first family of politics to striking out on her own and becoming one of the most critically-acclaimed actors of her generation; from clawing up to the top of her chosen world to hitting rock bottom as the brutal reality of cancer struck; from being debilitated by disease to dominating it, Manisha Koirala has been there and done it all.

Manisha is, clearly, a woman of deep reserves – of ambition and strength; courage and resilience, and in an intensely personal conversation, Manisha shared the brutal reality of confronting ovarian cancer, her descent into hopelessness, and what kept her going when mind and body started to shut down.

What is remarkable is that she carries not a trace of bitterness from the traumatic years that cut short her career at the top of its form – instead, she returned to her world of film with perspective about its place in her scheme of things: “cinema means a lot to me, but it’s no longer everything.”

Instead, she’s committed to “paying it forward,” the one powerful message she left us with as she recounted how the kindness of strangers kept her going during the darkest hours.