Lakhe Rush: This mobile game about Kathmandu culture is out amid a controversy

Utsav Dev Manandhar, in the summer of 2020, developed an endless runner game similar to the popular Temple Run. He named the game Lakhe Rush as he wanted to pay homage to a character, Lakhe , which he would see during many festivals he observed as a child growing up in Basantapur, the heart of urban Kathmandu.

He had decided to launch the game around Yenya, more commonly known as Indra Jatra , and had used festivals’ two main characters, Majipa Lakhe and Pulukisi (a special elephant). But, just before he was going to release the game, he decided against the launch as he started getting passive threats and negative comments on social media for using cultural motifs in a mobile game.