Nandita Das soon to direct film on Manto

Actress says it won't be a biopic as she will just be focusing on partition stories by the writer

Almost decades after the death of the controversial writer Saadat Hassan Manto -- filmmakers are finally recognising his literary contributions.

After Pakistani director and actor Sarmad Sultan Khoosat -- who will be essaying the role of the writer in the upcoming biopic Mein Manto -- Bollywood actress Nandita Das is all set to direct a film based on the Pakistani writer.

Expressing her views on the writer, Nandita said, "Manto was a free spirit, who wrote what he saw, and what he wrote was controversial and far ahead of his time. He penned elaborate essays on sex workers," reports Hindustan Times.

Read: Saadat Manto comes to life in biopic 'Mein Manto'

"In those days, nobody wrote about them, and in such a raw way as he did, empathising with their dilemmas and their tragic lives", she added.

PHOTO: IMGKID

The actress further said that she won't call it a biopic as she will just be focusing on some aspects of the writer's life. It will mainly revolve around the days of partition.

Read: Mahira Khan in a never-seen-before avatar in Manto

"His Partition stories are very, very powerful, but he does not look at this division of the subcontinent into India and Pakistan in an epic sort of way. He looks at it in a very intimate fashion: What happened to individuals in 1947, and the kind of horrors they had to face," she said.

"The Partition affected him terribly. He was deeply pained by the sectarian killings, and realised that even the noblest of men were capable of devilishness in moments of madness," she added.

Read: Raising the curtain on a reclusive Manto

The actress -- who has previously directed Firaaq in 2008 -- revealed that she is really inspired by Manto. She was introduced to his literary treasure when she was in college. "I was fascinated by his short stories, and later when I used to think about movie direction, I thought that I would make a film out of one of these," she said.

Nandita is also writing the script for her film along with a New York-based writer and Manto expert, Ali Meer.