If she warmed our hearts as the girl-next-door in 1942: A Love Story, she also played the silent yet firm Saira Banu in Mani Ratnam’s Bombay. A multi-faceted actress, Manisha Koirala vanished from the industry for a brief period. After a tough battle with the dreaded disease, the actress gathered it all back only to shine high yet again on the big screen.
Manisha made a grand comeback to the silver-screen with Dear Maya, where she played the titular character — a reclusive, traumatised artist whose life changes when she starts receiving love letters. And now, the actress has got tongues wagging about her role in Ranbir Kapoor’s upcoming biopic Sanju.
Koirala plays the role of Sanjay Dutt’s mother and late actress Nargis Dutt in the film. Speaking about her onscreen role, she said: “I am really honoured to have played Nargis Duttji in the film. It’s like any actress’ dream role. Though I have a very small role in the film… It’s a special appearance, but I am really excited to know audience reaction about my role and the film.”
And that’s not all! Manisha has more in her kitty. Ten years later, Manisha and Sanjay Dutt are all set to re-create magic on the big screen. The duo shared a long journey all the way back to 1992, when they were seen together in Yalgaar. Directed by and starring Feroz Khan, the film narrates the tale of two friends from childhood, who suddenly find themselves on opposite sides of the law.
Following this, through their career Sanjay and Manisha have worked on various successful films together including Baaghi, Khauff, Sanam and more. And now sources reveal that Sanjay Dutt’s production house is in the process of remaking Prasthaanam, the super-hit Telugu film. Manisha will play Sanjay Dutt’s onscreen wife, in the film which also stars Ali Fazal and Amyra Dastur.
Recommended
Speaking about the film, director Deva Katta said, “Each character in Prasthaanam has a very strong role to play for which we needed actors with great caliber. When the team came up with the idea to cast Manisha Koirala to play Sanjay Dutt’s onscreen wife, it was a perfect match in my mind. I am looking forward to directing them both especially since they are coming back together after 10 years.”
Produced by Sanjay Dutt’s Productions, the film will go on floors on 1 June and will be extensively shot in Lucknow. Manisha is also part of Netflix India original, Lust Stories, an anthology of four short films, directed by Zoya Akhtar, Karan Johar, Anurag Kashyap and Dibakar Banerjee.
On the personal front, her battle with cancer has made her a motivational speaker and a champion for cancer prevention awareness. In fact, in the past year, Manisha also delivered several motivational talks at multinational companies, schools and hospitals.