Manto a very big project for me, it is not a typical Bollywood song and dance film: Nandita Das

Nandita 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.”

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The filmmaker says the team is aiming to wrap up the shoot of the film soon as they don’t have the budget of a big Bollywood movie.”It is an independent film, not a typical Bollywood song and dance film. We don’t have a big budget so we can’t stretch it (the shooting) till 200 days. We will try to shoot it as fast as we can, in a very efficient way,” said the director.

Also read | Manto first look: Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s resemblance to the writer is uncanny, see pic

Nandita, however, did not reveal who has replaced Om Puri in the film, as the actor passed away earlier this year, before starting the film. She was speaking at the book launch of “The First Storyteller” by Varun Gwalani. At the event, Nandita along with the author indulged in a dialogue with the audience on mental health.

Nandita says it is unfortunate that people deal with mental illness in a hushed tone and don’t even have a proper vocabulary for it.”We need to be unapologetic about mental illness. Mental illness is like any other illness. There are other cures. In our society we don’t even have the right vocabulary. We don’t even know how to deal with it. Either it is hushed or there is a discomfort. We just don’t have conversations about it.

“We need to have more compassion. I don’t know what mental illness is… I feel we all have some kind of mental illness. Some express it more openly, some don’t.”

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Nandita also talked about how a book and a film are two different mediums and both have their own charm, so it is not necessary to adapt every book into a film.

“Reading a book is a different experience than watching a film. When I was going through some stories of Manto (Saadat Hasan Manto) I realised that they can reach to your mind with a different level of intensity… So I think it’s not necessary to make a film out of every book,” the actress said.