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
March 6,2020

Los Angeles, Mar 6: Filmmaker-writer Taika Waititi is set to direct two animated series based on Roald Dahl's "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" for Netflix.

Waititi, who won an Academy Award in February for his adapted screenplay, "Jojo Rabbit", will also serve as the writer and producer on the animated series.

According to Deadline, the first series will be based on the world of "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", while the second will be an original take on the Oompa-Loompa characters from the book.

The Oompa-Loompas are little humans who were preyed upon in Loompaland before Wonka invited them to work at his chocolate factory. They are paid in cocoa beans and love practical jokes and singing songs.

Netflix said the animation series would "retain the quintessential spirit and tone of the original story while building out the world and characters far beyond the pages of the Dahl book for the very first time."

The series will follow in the footsteps of Gene Wilder's 1971 portrayal of Willy Wonka and Johnny Depp's 2005 interpretation.

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News Network
July 3,2020

Mumbai, Jun 3: Investigators will subject the cloth allegedly used by actor Sushant Singh Rajput to hang himself to "tensile strength" analysis to determine whether it can bear the weight similar to that of the filmstar, as part of probe into his death, an official said on Friday.

Rajput (34) was found hanging at his suburban Bandra residence on June 14.

According to the investigators, the actor ended his life by hanging himself from the ceiling using a green coloured night gown made of cotton.

No suicide note was found from the spot, the police had said then.

Besides viscera from the actors body, the police also sent the gown for chemical and forensic analysis at the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) in suburban Kalina, he said.

It will take at least three more days to get final forensic report, the official said.

To ascertain the exact cause of death, forensic experts will check pattern of ligature marks around the actors neck and also determine the strength of the gown with the help of "tensile strength" analysis, he said.

The tensile strength test will technically establish whether the cloth can bear around 80kg, the weight of the actor, he said.

The test will help determine if there was any foul play, the official said.

Tensile strength is maximum load that a material can support without fracture when being stretched.

Viscera analysis will help in checking whether there were any traces of chemical, poisonous or narcotics substance in his body, the official said.

"Usually, it takes eight to ten working days to get s report from the FSL in regular cases. But since this case is sensitive, experts are taking more precautions to avoid any kind of error in their analysis," the official said.

The forensic report of the actors mobile phone is also awaited, he said.

Recently, the police received the final post-mortem report of the actor from Cooper Hospital, which mentioned the cause of the death as asphyxia due to hanging"

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News Network
February 3,2020

Feb 3: Actor-cum-activist Swara Bhaskar on Sunday targetted the Central government over granting Padma Shri to Pakistan-origin singer Adnan Sami who became an Indian citizen in 2016.

Addressing "Save the Constitution, Save the Country" rally here in Madhya Pradesh, Bhaskar said that passing the new citizenship amendment act tantamount to "betrayal" of the Constitution.

Sami, born in London to a Pakistani Air force veteran, applied for Indian citizenship in 2015 and became a citizen of the country in January 2016.

He was one of the 118 people chosen for the Padma Shri awards by the Centre last month.

"The legal process to grant citizenship to refugees and arrest infiltrators already exists in India. You (the government) have granted Indian citizenship to Adnan Sami and now selected him for Padma Shri through that process. (If this is the case) What is the need and justification for the Citizenship Amendment Act?" Bhaskar asked.

"On the one hand you abuse us (anti-CAA protesters), cane-charge us, slap us, hurl teargas shells at us and on the other hand you award Padma Shri to a Pakistani," she said

Bhaskar said the government labels some people as the members of "tukde-tukde gang" and anti-nationals" as per its convenience.

"Supporters of the CAA and the NRC keep harping about the so-called infiltrators having entered our country. If that is the case then why are we unable to see these intruders?" she asked.

"The problem is that they have intruded into the minds of the government and the ruling party," she said.

Bhaskar said the government seems to have "fallen in love with Pakistan".

"It sees Pakistan everywhere. My devout grandmother doesn't chant Hanuman Chalisa as often as this government keeps chanting the Pakistan mantra," she said.

Without naming the RSS, the actor said, "Sitting in Nagpur, these people are spreading politics of hatred".

Bhaskar said Pakistan chose to become a religious nation after the Partition in 1947 unlike India which opted to become a "secular republic where one's religion has nothing to do with citizenship".

"(Pakistan founder Mohammad Ali) Jinnah died a long ago, but his admirers want to divide the country again in the name of a religion," Bhaskar said.

She criticised BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya for his controversial remarks about the 'presence' of Bangladeshi infiltrators in Indore, after some labourers were found eating poha and not rotis.

"If poha is Bangladeshi cuisine, then Kailash Vijayvariya, who grew up eating poha (in Indore), should be required to show his Indian citizenship papers," she demanded.

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