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

    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.”