Manto taught me not to judge anyone: Nawazuddin

Agencies
September 21, 2018

New Delhi, Sept 21: Once he is on screen, the characters Nawazuddin Siddiqui plays feel like his second skin, inseparable from his psyche.

But the actor says after playing the title role in Saadat Hasan Manto's biopic, a part of the famed short-story writer still lives inside him; a quality he imbibed - not to be judgemental.

Siddiqui believes every time one takes up a character, it adds something to the personality of the actor but also takes something away from them.

"I feel an actor should be like water. They should take the shape of the character when poured inside the mould… What I learnt from Manto is that he never judged anyone, not even the ones in his stories.

"He always managed to find something admirable, especially in those people whom the society had rejected. I will always cherish this gift by Manto that you shouldn't judge anybody. You never know what heights they end up achieving one day,” the actor told news agency in an interview.

Asked what Manto took away from him, Siddiqui says the writer robbed him of his ability to put up a facade so much so that he was haunted by the habit of speaking the truth, even 15 days after he wrapped up the shooting for the Nandita Das-directed film, which released today.

"I called up Nandita and said, 'Pull him out of me!'. It was during this time that I had become more truthful than I usually am. Many mishaps also happened with me during that period.

"I eventually realised it would be best to get all of Manto’s truthfulness out of me. He took a lot of bad qualities away from me in those 15 days, but I snatched back all of that. I thought: 'It's better for me to be a liar. I have got in so much trouble because of you, Manto',” he says.

The news that Siddiqui charged a token Rs 1 fee from Das is viral on social media and the actor says it was a decision he took from the heart.

"You do a lot of films for money and then there are some you do for yourself. Can you decide a fee for that?" he asks.

With the phenomenal success of "Sacred Games", Siddiqui's fans seem to have tasted blood and the actor hopes the response to the Netflix India Original series, which has been renewed for a second season, will carry the momentum for "Manto" forward.

In "Sacred Games", while frequent collaborator Anurag Kashyap helmed portions of Siddiqui's local goon-turned-mafia overlord Ganesh Gaitonde, co-director Vikramaditya Motwane shot parts with Saif Ali Khan, who plays Sartaj Singh, an honest Mumbai cop trying to find his feet in the profession.

Looking at Manto and Gaintonde, the journey of both the parts was shaped by unforgettable, important female characters.

If the writer had mother Sardar Begum, wife Safiya and contemporary Ismat Chughtai among others by his side, Siddiqui's gangster had the support of girlfriend Kukkoo, wife Subhadra and Kanta Bai as his voice of reason.

The actor explains, "Manto was very close to the women in his life. Safiya was one of his first readers and she was a harsh critic too. He considered her a sharp mind. He never treated Safiya just as his wife; she was first a human being for him. And largely too, Manto never thought of women as wives, sisters and daughters. They were humans for him first, like anybody else.

"Whereas Gaitonde had dedicated his everything to the women in his life. In the beginning, he treated them badly but perhaps he gradually realised his misbehaviour and changes it. But as he started getting closer to them, he started losing them."

"Manto" also stars Rasika Dugal, Tahir Raj Bhasin, Neeraj Kabi, Divya Dutta, Ranvir Shorey and Rishi Kapoor.

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News Network
June 11,2020

Washington, Jun 11: Music maestro AR Rahman has joined the international film 'No Land's Man' as co-producer and composer.

Helmed by renowned Bangladeshi filmmaker Mostofa Sarwar Farooki, the upcoming movie has Indian thespian Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Australian theatre actor Megan Mitchell, and Bangladeshi musician and actor Tahsan Rahman Khan in pivotal roles.

"Time always gives birth to new worlds, new ideals. The newborn world has new challenges and new stories to tell. This is one such story," Variety quoted Rahman as saying.

The movie chronicles the life of a South Asian, whose journey gets complicated when he meets an Australian woman in the U.S.

The film, shot in the U.S., Australia and India, is predominantly in English with some dialogue in Hindi and Urdu.

'Sacred Games' actor, Siddique said: "The filming experience for this project was challenging but a fulfilling one. AR Rahman's brilliance will definitely make the film richer."

"Farooki and I first spoke about 'No Land's Man' at Film Bazaar in 2014. Between then and now, the film has become even more relevant as it looks at what it means to be a vulnerable person in a racially-divided world," producer Srihari Sathe said.

'No Land's Man' won the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) and Asia Pacific Screen Awards' Script Development fund in 2014. It was part of the Asian Project Market at Busan and was chosen as the best project at India's Film Bazaar the same year.

Earlier in January, Siddiqui posted multiple pictures on Instagram with the team of the flick, marking the schedule wrap in New York and Sydney for 'No Land's Man.'

He also captioned the post as: "Wonderful experience with the most energetic team."

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May 24,2020

Los Angeles, May 24: Filmmaker Frank Marshall, one of the producers behind Jurassic World: Dominion, says the forthcoming film is not a conclusion of the franchise.

Colin Trevorrow, who rebooted Steven Spielberg's blockbuster Jurassic Park franchise with 2015's Jurassic World, is back on the director's chair after sitting out on second movie Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018).

Asked about the upcoming movie, Marshall told Collider: "It's the start of a new era."

Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard are coming back for the third film, which will also feature original stars of 1993's Jurassic Park -- Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum and Sam Neill.

The producer also revealed how he sees the film franchise extending into the future.

"The dinosaurs are now on the mainland amongst us, and they will be for quite some time, I hope," Marshall said.

The film was three weeks into production when it was shut down over coronavirus concerns, but the producer said the team has the sets built in London and will be "back in business" once they have guidelines from the British government.

Dominion is still slated to be released on its scheduled date of June 11, 2021.

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News Network
January 2,2020

New Delhi, Jan 2: Hoping her cinematic voice can help bring about lasting change in how society perceives acid attack survivors, actor Deepika Padukone says her latest film Chhapaak should ideally be so impactful that there won't be need for another story on acid violence.

After all, cinema is in itself such a powerful medium, Deepika told news agency ahead of the release of the film, which is based on the life of acid attack survivor and activist Laxmi Agarwal.

The idea behind the social drama is to invoke empathy and understanding rather than paint women who have undergone the ordeal as victims, the actor, who has also produced the film, said in a telephonic interview from Mumbai.

"Beyond the gruesomeness, the violence and all of that, there is a story of the human spirit and hope. That's why we're telling the story," she said.

Deepika, 33, said it was a story that spoke to her and she felt pride in attaching herself to the project.

Chhapaak, directed by Meghna Gulzar and featuring Vikrant Massey, is the second mainstream film to focus on the subject after 2019 Malayalam movie Uyare starring Parvathy Thiruvothu.

"I hope we won't have to constantly tell stories on acid attack survivors for us to see change. I hope with our film we begin to see that change for ourselves as a society and for acid attack survivors.

"If we don't, then we've done something wrong as a society. Cinema in itself is such a powerful medium that hopefully just through this one film we will hopefully be able to see that kind of change and impact," Deepika said.

The actor said there was not much planning behind the decision to back the film financially.

"Sometimes certain films need a little more hand holding, a little more love and support. I felt like I would be adding a little more value as a producer.

"This is a film I'm very proud of, not just from the script point of view but even in terms of the story and its message," she said.

The film, which releases on January 10, will be Deepika's first release in two years and comes after her marriage to frequent co-star Ranveer Singh.

The actor said she used the time to creatively replenish herself.

"It was about finding a film worthy of putting out there. It's not that work at my end had stopped. I was constantly looking for scripts that challenged and excited me.

"I would look at it as time for creative fertility. It's important to nurture yourself. The work that goes on behind the scenes... most often we're constantly on a film set, but whether it's meeting with writers and directors, looking for scripts... That is also part of the creative process and that's what I've been doing."

The title Chhapaak instantly evokes the image of acid being splattered, and Deepika said the director wanted a word for the film's name that could also lend itself to a song.

"I think she said 'chhapaak', which is the sound of a splash, is something that could adapt or lend itself beautifully to a song. Perhaps, it also has to do with fluidity. So on one hand, liquid is known to take different forms, a liquid such as this (acid) can change someone's life forever," she said.

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