It Took a Lot of Strength to Play Nargis: Manisha Koirala on Sanju

Manisha Koirala’s resemblance to Nargis Dutt is startling.

Manisha Koirala plays the role of Nargis Dutt in Sanjay Dutt’s biopic, ‘Sanju’

(Photo Courtesy: Instagram)

How does an actor embody an iconic character whose personality is deeply etched in people’s memories? This is indeed the challenge that the cast of Sanju has undertaken: Ranbir Kapoor plays Sanjay Dutt, Paresh Rawal plays Sunil Dutt, and so on. For now, Manisha Koirala has shared her journey of playing the role of Nargis Dutt in the film by uploading photographs of many of her looks on Instagram.

“Many different looks were tried on through various photographs and books and documentary. Here are few for you guys: peep in to what goes on to create a look. Among other things we tried many hair styles.”

Manisha Koirala on Instagram

In conversation with PTI, Manisha revealed that she attempted to go beyond merely replicating the way Nargis looked. Instead, she tried to imbibe her soul to delve deep into the character.

“This is new to me. I’ve always been a spontaneous actor. But for <i>Sanju</i>, I did a lot of research on Nargis <i>ji</i>. The film focuses on Nargis, the doting mother who wanted to protect her son from the truth about her health until his first film was released. Unfortunately, she passed away before her son’s debut film <i>Rocky </i>released. This really broke him.”

Manisha Koirala to PTI

She also shared that being a cancer survivor herself, it was traumatic for her to relive the illness again in Sanju.

“To live through the pain, trauma and suffering again. It required a lot of inner strength to play Nargis <i>ji</i>. But finally it was all worth it, because Nargis was such an iconic figure. I’ve tried to capture her essence, the core of her being. Just looking like her, or combing my hair the way she did, is not enough. I had to understand her spirit, her soul. Just how much I’ve succeeded, we will soon know.”

The film, written and directed by Rajkumar Hirani and produced by Vidhu Vinod Chopra, is scheduled to release on 29 June.

(Source: Hindustan Times)