Writer Saadat Hasan Manto may be best known for his fierce stories, but actress Rasika Dugal, who plays his wife, Safiyah, in the upcoming Nandita Das-directed biopic, says the movie will explore his homely side.
Nawazuddin Siddiqui plays Manto in the film, which will trace the author’s life, his relationship with his wife and his life post-Partition in Lahore.
Dugal says she was very impressed with the research that Das has done to bring Manto’s story to life on the big screen.
“According to Nandita’s research, Manto was a very doting husband. You don’t think of Manto like that. You don’t think of him domestically at all. That is an interesting aspect. He bounced off a lot of work from her and she helped him with his writing,” Dugal said.
“The film is about how their relationship changes over the situations they encounter like the Partition, going to Lahore together and the several cases of obscenity against them. It is how their relationship changes.”
Dugal was offered the role after Nandita watched her in a play Bombay Talkies, which was part of the director and her husband Subodh Maskara’s initiative Cineplay.
“After the play, we kept in touch and then when she saw [movie] Qissa it made things fall into place.”
