Muscled up: Nawaz excited to play Manto

Actor says role in upcoming period film will be challenging

MUMBAI: Actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui is excited to bring to life Pakistani writer Saadat Hasan Manto on the silver screen through film-maker Nandita Das’s upcoming project.

Nandita will be tracing the life of Manto with her new directorial that also focuses on Partition. At the ongoing Cannes Film Festival, the critically-acclaimed actor announced that Nawazuddin will play the titular role in her upcoming movie.

“Manto was a very famous writer of the 50s and I am excited to play him, making this a rather interesting project. When Nandita discussed this with me at Cannes, I was drawn to the interesting challenge of doing a period drama,” Nawazuddin said.



Nandita, who co-wrote the film with Mir Ali Hussain, had earlier said that actor Irrfan Khan was “seriously looking at the script” as he’s a big fan of the Pakistani short story writer.

Manto, who died in 1955 at the age of 43, produced an impressive body of work touching various genres. Pakistani film-maker Sarmad Khoosat has already made a film on him and it was screened at the 21st Kolkata International Film Festival last year.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 23^rd, 2016.

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