Kai Cech to Lead Voice Cast of Nepal's First Global Animated Feature

Kai Cech, who starred opposite Jack Black in Paramount's 2024 holiday comedy "Dear Santa," has been cast as the lead voice in "Lost in Mandala," the first animated feature from Nepal's Incessant Rain Studios, now in pre-production.

Cech will voice Shanti, a lonely 12-year-old raised in an isolated monastery in the Himalayas. Shanti and her friends get pulled into a magical world hidden inside a sacred mandala, a geometric ritual design in Himalayan Buddhist tradition. The setting gives her the belonging she has always wanted — until it's shattered by a dark force, and returning home means facing the truth of her past and defeating a demon through compassion.

Why the story fit the actor

"My parents have always emphasized the importance of kindness to all and that my love and empathy for all living things is a superpower," Cech said. "So this story really struck a chord with me since my character Shanti must find her inner strength through compassion, balance and mindfulness."

She added: "It's also a story of friendship and working together to discover who you truly are and what is really important. In addition, I'm just so excited to be a part of Nepal's first global animated feature film and working with such talented creators."

Who is making it?

Kiran Bhakta Joshi created the film and directs. He previously worked as a visual effects supervisor at Disney, with credits on "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," "The Lion King" and "Beauty and the Beast." The studio frames the project as a major step for Nepal's creative sector, combining global film-business experience with homegrown production capacity.

"Growing up in Nepal, I was surrounded by the rich mythology, folklore, and cultural traditions of the Himalayas," Joshi said. "As a child, I helped create mandalas for traditional ceremonies, fascinated by their beauty without fully understanding their deeper meaning."

With "Lost in Mandala," he said, he wants to bring that world to life "through a story that is culturally rooted yet universally relatable." He also praised Cech and his collaborators Zack Stentz, Christopher Jenkins and Richard Chavez, "whose creative vision is invaluable in bringing this story to audiences around the world."

The screenplay comes from Zack Stentz, whose credits include "Thor," "X-Men: First Class" and Netflix's "Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous," and Christopher Jenkins, whose credits include the Oscar-nominated "Surf's Up," "10 Lives" and "Home."

"As a longtime fan of Nepal and its people, I jumped at the opportunity to collaborate with my friend Kiran on 'Mandala,'" Stentz said. "The result is a love letter to one of the world's richest yet little-known cultures in the form of a plucky girl and her loyal friends' adventures in a magical land."

Jenkins described the film's imaginative mechanism. "Stepping inside the mandala means entering a world where logic bends, geometry comes alive, and the landscape changes with your emotions," he said. "In writing Shanti's adventure, my goal is to create a mind-bending, topsy-turvy odyssey that matches the deep, beautiful spirituality of the Himalayas with a high-stakes fantasy world global audiences have never seen before."

The producing team: Joshi, Stentz, Jenkins and Nakim Uddin serve as executive producers, Deepa Chipalu Joshi produces, and Richard Chavez — whose credits include "The Prince of Egypt," "Mulan" and "Hotel Transylvania" — is production designer. NIBL Equity Partners is a production partner.

What does this change for Cech?

It gives the young actor a flagship franchise-adjacent role. Cech grew up in Northern California and modeled in print for Gap, Old Navy, Mattel and Gymboree before moving into film and television. Her first lead film role, as Gwynn Tan, came in 2022's "American Girl: Corinne Tan." After "Dear Santa" in 2024, she appeared in "Marshmallow," an independent horror film, in 2025. Osbrink, Paradigm and Brillstein Entertainment Partners represent her.

Incessant Rain, based in Nepal, works across animation, visual effects and game development. It makes its own films and games and also supplies animation, VFX and production services for international and regional partners. If "Lost in Mandala" lands, it could mark the moment Nepal's animation industry moves from service work to globally distributed originals.