KATHMANDU - Branded an Indian language, Hindi has been given the thumbs-down in Nepal as the medium of official work.

However, Indian celebrities continue to be courted by Nepal for that touch of glamour, entertainment and driving home a special message.

As Kathmandu gears up for Fashionova 2009 Wednesday, a fashion gala that will showcase creations by 27 Nepali designers, making a special appearance on the ramp will be 23-year-old Pooja Chopra, the new Miss India World, the unwanted second daughter from a middleclass family in Pune who was raised singlehandedly by her mother and went on to become India’s newest youth icon.

On Tuesday, as the Institute of Fashion Design, a franchisee of the National Institute of Fashion Design in India’s Chandigarh city and the host of the fashion show, held a press conference, journalists bombarded Chopra with questions, ignoring the local celebrities. On Wednesday, it was Chopra’s smiling face, wearing the crown she won in April, which dominated the newspapers.

Bollywood’s singing sensation Sunidhi Chauhan will arrive in Kathmandu Friday for four back-to-back concerts that are part of an MTV tour meant to raise awareness about trafficking. The 26-year-old will be crooning along with Nepal’s pop stars Nima Rumba and Kranti Ale, also projecting the message that music is a universal language transcending borders.

In between the four concerts in Kathmandu, Pokhara, Hetauda and Dharan, Nepal will also play host to Bollywood icons Shabana Azmi and Farooque Shaikh.

The two Bollywood stars will be staging “Tumhari Amrita” in the capital Sep 16, the poignant love story of a politician and a painter narrated through love letters written across a span of 35 years.

Written by Javed Siddiqui and directed by Feroz Abbas Khan, the Hindi-Urdu play is part of a drive to raise funds for the Spinal Injury Rehabilitation Centre in Kavre.

“A disproportionate number of Nepalis suffer from spinal cord injuries resulting from falls,” the centre says. “Accidents occur with unreported regularity with individuals (particularly women and children) falling while collecting tree fodder or following livestock on cliffs and with porters slipping off precipitous trails.

“The spread of the road network in the country has resulted in a sharp increase in spinal trauma from highway accidents. Furthermore, with the surge of Nepalis working as migrant labourers abroad, cases of construction/industrial accidents resulting in SCI has also increased.”

The interaction with Indian celebrities continues even as Nepal remains embroiled in a language row, with the nation’s first vice-president, Paramananda Jha, having been suspended by Supreme Court for having taken his oath of office and secrecy in Hindi.

The 65-year-old Jha, who says Hindi comes to him more spontaneously than Nepali, refused to save his post by being sworn in once again in Nepali, thereby creating a sharp rift between Nepal’s Nepali-speaking elite hill community and the plains people living along the India-Nepal border, who use Hindi, along with other non-Nepali mother tongues.