+ A
A -
PTI
Actress-filmmaker Nandita Das is all set to start her upcoming film Manto from next month and says the movie is a"very big project" for her. The biopic stars Nawazuddin Siddiqui in the lead role of the celebrated writer, Saadat Hasan Manto.
Nandita says apart from the Raees actor, prominent names from the industry will be joining the project."The work is going on in full swing. We are going on floors on March 15, so there's a lot of work. It's a very big project for me. It's a period film, we will recreate 1940s here," she said.
"Nawazuddin is the lead but we have a lot of prominent names supporting the film, I am very fortunate. They are ready to do even small roles, all of the names will be out soon. I hope you'll watch the film."
The filmmaker said the team aims to wrap the shoot of the film as soon as possible because they don't have the budget of a big Bollywood movie."It is an independent film, not a typical Bollywood song and dance. We don't have a big budget so we can't stretch the shooting. We will try to shoot it as fast as we can, in a very efficient way."
Nandita, however, did not reveal who has replaced Om Puri in the film, as the actor passed away earlier this year. She was speaking at the book launch of The First Storyteller by Varun Gwalani.
At the event, Nandita and the author engaged in a dialogue with the audience about mental health. Nandita said it is unfortunate that people deal with mental illness in a hushed tone."We need to be unapologetic about mental illness. Mental illness is like any other illness. There are cures. In our society we don't even have the right vocabulary for it. We don't even know how to deal with it. We need to have more compassion towards those suffering from it."
