Was Manisha Koirala Apprehensive About Playing Ranbir Kapoor's Mother In The Sanjay Dutt Biopic?

Manisha Koirala, who made a comeback on screen with the film Dear Maya, after a hiatus of almost five years, will now reprise the role of yesteryear actor Nargis Dutt in the yet-to-be-titled biopic on actor Sanjay Dutt that has Ranbir Kapoor playing the role of Dutt.

Asked how it felt to portray Nargis’s character on-screen, Manisha says, “Playing Nargisji is a huge responsibility and a compliment at the same time and I just hope I did a good job. Though I got a big pat on my back from Raju Hirani and writer and Vidhu Vinod Chopra, I am still keeping my fingers crossed.”

Though Manisha plays a small role in the film [a cameo], she was still nervous while shooting her part. “I wanted to do my best to get it right. At the end of the day, I am portraying a legendary character in the film. I got tips from my mother and from everybody around who knows her [Nargis]. There are huge expectations, so I hope I’ve done justice to it,” she says.

About the preparations for the role, Manisha says, “Honestly, I didn’t read much about her but I saw a documentary on her, which Raju Hirani showed me, so I could follow a little bit of mannerism that she had.”

So was she apprehensive about playing Ranbir’s mother on-screen? “Well initially, indeed yes, I had that fear. But the moment I thought in my head that I am primarily playing Nargis Dutt and not just Ranbir’s mother, that thought overshadowed everything,” says the 46-year-old actor.

Asked if in the future she’ll be comfortable playing the role of an elderly person on-screen, Manisha adds, “It totally depends on who the director is, the story and what is my role in the film. Even for Dear Maya, I was made to look totally deglamorised and way too ugly, but I performed the role because it was challenging enough for me. So if it interests me, I’m fine playing a 70-year-old with grey hair and wrinkles on my face.”