For any sports team and the community around it, a new jersey marks the start of a new season. Most franchise teams of the upcoming third season of the Nepal Premier League (NPL) are flooding social media platforms with AI-generated content for player reveals, mascot reveals, well, all sorts of revelations. All sorts of AI slop.
Amidst this degrading environment for creativity, one video revealed the team’s commitment to honest human work. Janakpur Bolts revealed their new jersey last week. And it was one of the best human-made videos produced, not generated, used by any franchise since the first season.
Nikesh Acharya, who was involved in the branding of the first season of the tournament, expressed delight in the team’s decision to refrain from using AI tools for the jersey reveal.
“It is always great when human creativity is placed above AI slop,” he told the Post.
The film reveals the jersey slowly through close details of its crest, stitching, fabric and gold trim. Rather than presenting the kit as a finished product in a polished studio, the camera places it within a space still under construction.
As with every other sports team, history means everything for the fans. The Bolts’ history has been marked by tumult in the last two seasons. They won the inaugural season of the NPL but plunged to the very rock bottom in the following season. Some of my friends have supported the team since the first season, and I have seen them live through the victorious cheers and the defeated silence. Those fans now hope—while hoping the Bolts bounce back—that the team does not ride the high horse, especially after having signed English all-rounder Moeen Ali, and brand itself as a dark horse for the upcoming season, clinging on to the feat of the first season and alienating the defeats of the second.
Even the video appears to have represented the work, reflection and determination behind returning to the field without any bravado for the first season.
“It reflects a team that doesn’t ignore the past but uses it to build what comes next,” said Prashanna Bajracharya, head of creative production for the Bolts. “Brick by brick. Over by over.”
The video’s central idea seems simple: a team is never built in a single moment. It takes preparation, difficult lessons and the discipline to return after disappointment. The jersey carries that responsibility into the upcoming NPL season. It represents the players who will wear it, the supporters who stand behind it and the city whose name appears on the front.
At the centre of the campaign is the statement: “This season, we play like Janakpur.”
That indicates carrying Janakpur’s and Madhesh’s character with honesty. You can’t create that connection through surface-level cultural references alone. It must be visible in the team’s attitude, resilience, and relationship with its supporters.
“For this film, the focus was not simply on displaying the new jersey,” said Bajracharya. “It was to give the reveal an emotional context that supporters could recognise.”
And it is exactly what the video does. The players aren’t shown celebrating before the season begins. They appear focused and ready to work. That is where Janakpur Bolts stands today.