Purab Kohli joins Nadita Das film ‘Manto’

Actor Purab Kohli will feature in a sub-plot of Nandita Das’s ambitious directorial project Manto.

Manto is a project on the life of celebrated Urdu author Saadat Hassan Manto. It features Nawazuddin Siddiqui in the title role, and Rasika Dugal plays his wife Safiyah.

Parts of the movie will reportedly recreate some of the writer’s most controversial stories, and Kohli will be seen in one of these.

“The first two films in my career had me acting with Nandita,” Kohli said. “Bas Yun Hi then Supari. After that, we also acted together for Onir’s I Am.”

“She and Farhan Akhtar are the only two actors I’ve worked with in three different films. And incidentally, they both are directors I would love to work with,” he added.

“When Nandita called for me to play a small role in one of the short stories woven into the main narrative, I couldn’t say no. One, for the want to work with her and then also to be a part of a prestigious project such as a film being made on Saadat Hassan Manto.”

Kohli will be seen playing one of the three men who set out to hire a prostitute only to realise when she shows up that she’s a child. What transpires is an uncomfortable yet innocent outing written by Manto in his short story Dus Rupaya.

There’s also a buzz that actors Divya Dutta and Ranvir Shorey have been roped in to bring alive Manto’s Thanda Gosht, which is set in 1947.