In the flood of biopics in Bollywood, Nandita Das hopes to stand apart with "Manto", which explores the psyche of the famed short story writer at a time when sectarian violence was at its peak.
Nawazuddin Siddiqui embodies the character of Saadat Hasan Manto in Nandita's second directorial venture, which looks at the author's most turbulent and creative years, beginning from 1946.
Asked why artistes keep revisiting the Partition, Nandita said, "Why we have not forgotten and probably why we should not forget Partition is because we haven't learnt anything from it."
"We have not really celebrated our writers. I tried weaving Manto's stories in the narrative. The line between his work and his life is a bit blurred. You don't know if the character he is writing about really existed or was his creation."