Rasika Dugal Goes Sans Make-up for Manto

Mumbai: Actress Rasika Dugal, who essays Safia Manto in Nandita Das' directorial "Manto", needed no make-up or prosthetics for her portrayal.

Manto is based on the life of late writer Saadat Hasan Manto. Safia was his wife.

"Srikant and his team did a fabulous job of designing the look of the characters. On most days I shot with no makeup. The team just found ways to tweak small things to show a change in the look over the years, since the story of the film is over six years and Manto and Safia go through a lot in those years," Rasika said in a statement.

"They are the tiniest of changes, but in my opinion, make a strong impact and affect the look of the character. And also really helped enhance the performance. We really didn't use any make-up or prosthetics. But the smallest of details were looked into by Nandita," she added.

Manto features Nawazuddin Siddiqui in the title role. It also features Rajshri Deshpande as a celebrated author, Ismat Chughtai and has a guest appearance from several actors including Shabana Azmi, Purab Kohli and Chandan Roy Sanyal.

The movie had a world premiere at the 71st Cannes Film Festival this month, earning positive reviews.