Manto actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui and director Nandita Das entered the St. Xavier’s College auditorium on September 13 amid chants of “Gaitonde! Gaitonde!” At an interactive session organised by SXCCAA and Student’s Council on the Park Street campus, the actor-director duo discussed their September 21 release Manto and the celebrated writer on whom the film is based. A Xaverian pens down his takeaways from the starry afternoon. 

Manto as a writer: Saadat Hasan Manto was a writer who was fearless in his thoughts and spoke the truth through his work, without being intimidated by society. He was an artiste who fought for justice. 

Research behind Manto: Director Nandita Das was unrelenting in her research on all the characters that feature in the script, having nurtured the idea of a biopic on Manto right from 2012. It took four-five years of work and the brilliant casting of Nawazuddin to bring alive the character on the big screen. 

Nandita on Nawaz: Nawaz’s acting skills and ability to slip into different characters prompted Nandita to zero in on Nawaz. “Manto was a character with several layers of contradiction, someone just like us and not put on a pedestal. He was angry and sentimental, and had his own set of issues. After shooting, I felt Nawaz carried Manto’s life and struggles in his eyes,” said Nandita. 

Nawaz on Nandita: “Since she studied the character so intensively and lived and breathed Manto for almost six years, by the time we started shooting the film, Nandita had become a living female Manto!” said Nawaz, adding that he did the film “for Re 1, because some projects are special and this is my favourite character”.

From Nawaz to Manto: The Sacred Games actor moulded himself into the character, incorporating “Manto’s honesty” into his personality. Manto had become his second skin and 15 days after the shoot Nawaz had to request Nandita to help him get out of the character.

Response to Manto at Cannes: Nandita was apprehensive about how Manto would be received at the Cannes film festival, when it was screened earlier this year, because the dialogues are in Hindi and Urdu, with English subtitles.

“I was pleasantly surprised to see the film receiving a great response from international critics. Due to the universality of human experience, people from different backgrounds connected to Manto’s fight for truth and struggle for justice,” said Nandita.

Text: Vedant Karia

Pictures: Rashbehari Das