After it was announced that the Central Board of Film Censors had barred Bollywood’s Manto starring Nawazuddin Siddiqui from releasing in Pakistan about a few months ago, Nandita Das has now officially confirmed that the film will not see the light of the day in the country at all.
Taking to Twitter to express her disappointment, the actor/filmmaker wrote that she was ‘keen that the film would release in both countries.’
“Disappointed that Manto will not be seen in theatres in Pakistan,” she had tweeted. “I was keen as he belongs to both countries equally.”
Shukriya @fawadchaudhry #FreeSpeech https://t.co/1csLEBQT2o
— Nandita Das (@nanditadas) December 16, 2018
Since her tweet, Pakistan’s Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Chaudhry Fawad Hussain has taken notice of the situation and has promised that the film might release in Pakistan.
“I am trying to pursue importers to bring this movie to Pak, I hope someone will definitely take risk of showing a less commercial film to the viewers,” he said.
The film follows the tumultuous years in the life of Sadat Hasan Manto as partition becomes a reality between India and Pakistan. The film starred Rasika Dugal as the late writer’s wife along with Tahir Raj Bhasin, Rishi Kapoor and Divya Dutta in key roles.
