Manisha to wed Nepali businessman

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Manisha Koirala, who is also the daughter of one of the most powerful political houses in Nepal, seems finally set to tie the knot in her country of birth with Nepali businessman Samrat Dahal on June 19.

"Mutual acquaintances told me about a week ago that Manisha Koirala was getting married in Nepal," said Nepali film director Dipendra Khanal, whose upcoming release Dharma will mark the return of the actress to the Nepali film industry nearly two decades after she left Nepal to storm Bollywood. Manisha, presently shooting in Kerala for a Telugu film, will return to Kathmandu Friday, Khanal added.

She was in Nepal last month to attend the last rites of her grand uncle Girija Prasad Koirala. At a press conference afterwards, she said the patriarch of Nepal's politics and five-time prime minister had lamented to her that nobody loved him; people flocked to him only to get something out of him.

She was asked about her wedding plans but she parried the questions without divulging her new romance.

The would-be bridegroom was reportedly educated in the US and is a businessman. While not much is known about him, his father Surendra Dahal made his fortune in the leather industry.

The wedding will be a three-day extravaganza that is expected to see Mumbai's stars descend on Kathmandu.

Manisha, grand daughter of Nepal's first elected prime minister B P Koirala, had a minor fling with politics in 2005 when she supported King Gyanendra's bid to seize power with an army-backed coup.

However, the move backfired and led to the abolition of monarchy in Nepal, once the world's only Hindu kingdom.

It is being speculated that Manisha could enter politics finally. Her aunt Sujata Koirala is the deputy prime minister of Nepal while two of her uncles are MPs.

Her father Prakash Koirala was a minister in King Gyanendra's cabinet but was expelled by his Nepali Congress party that led the pro-democracy movement against the king.

Manisha acted in just one film in Nepal, Pheri Bhetaula (We will meet again), that was, however, never released. She got her big break when Subhash Ghai cast her in Saudagar. She then went on to act in such acclaimed films as Mani Ratnam's Bombay and Dil Se, Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Khamoshi and Vidhu Vinod Chopra's 1942: A Love Story.