Miruna Lisara Magar

Miruna Lisara Magar is a Nepali actress, born on 18th July 1994. She became popular by playing a lead in the most successful Nepali box office films such as Kabaddi 4: The Final Match (2022) and Jaari (2023), which are the highest-grossing Nepali films of all time.

Miruna was born in Hong Kong, where her father was serving with the Royal Gurkha Rifles, a British Army battalion which had for decades been filled by Nepali soldiers. When she was two years old, she, along with her family, went back to Nepal, settling in Dharan, an eastern Nepal city. Miruna grew up in Dharan and lived there until age twelve. Her family migrated to the United Kingdom at that time, and she ended up residing in London, where she finished her education.

Her foray into acting was after she had returned to Nepal in 2016. Having a passion for performing arts, Miruna chose to remain back in Nepal to pursue the film industry. She started learning how to act and preparing herself to pursue a career in films.

Her first film was in 2018 with Lalpurja. Shortly thereafter in the same year, she appeared in Rose. All of these early roles were bringing her some kind of recognition at the time, even if the movies weren’t pulling fantastic box office. They did prove her to be a talent, however. She appeared in Saino and Cha Cha Hui in 2019, which unfortunately received very negative reviews from critics. Her solo act, however, was still noted and appreciated, showing that she could perform more substantial roles in the future.

Miruna’s actual success came in 2022 when she played Kabaddi 4: The Final Match. It was a romantic-comedy that was a blockbuster and broke all the previous box office records in Nepal, collecting more than 22.73 crore Nepalese rupees, thereby becoming the highest-grossing Nepali movie of all time. Her performance in the film catapulted her to mainstream fame and made her a household name in Nepal.

But in the campaign for promoting Kabaddi 4, Miruna was at the center of a massive controversy. She lodged a complaint against a Buddhist monk that he touched her inappropriately at an event in public. She got back by slapping him in public, humiliating him in front of all. The monk apologized and then Miruna also filed a court case against him, although later she withdrew it. The incident created massive media and public outrage. While there were some who criticized her for the stand she had taken, others criticized her for cashing in on the incident as a publicity stunt to promote her movie. The outrage led to anti-film protests against her, and later on, the Indian state government banned Kabaddi 4 in majority Buddhist Sikkim. When tensions ran high, Miruna eventually reached a friendly settlement with the monk and issued a public apology to the Buddhist community for the cultural and emotional distress the incident had caused.

Despite this controversy, Miruna kept growing in popularity throughout her career. In 2023, she appeared in the movie Jaari, which was once again a massive box office success. The movie earned approximately 13 crore rupees in two weeks and was one of the highest-grossing Nepali movies ever. This consecutive box office success solidified her position as one of the top-ranked actresses in the Nepali film industry.

Her increasing popularity also earned her recognition beyond the film sphere. She was appointed brand ambassador of the 12th Nepal European Union Film Festival in April 2023, which is a cultural festival that promotes Nepali and European films and inspires conversations through cinema. The festival was held between April 28 and April 30, and her ambassador appointment was a proof of her growing influence not only as an actress, but as a cultural ambassador of Nepal.