Nawazuddin Siddiqui is Nandita Das' Saadat Hasan Manto in new film

He is one of the few actors in Bollywood who never needed stardom to establish himself. After delivering critically acclaimed cinema like The Lunchbox, Manjhi: The Mountain Man, Gangs Of Wasseypur among others, Nawazuddin Siddiqui is now gearing up for the release of Raman Raghav 2. 0.

After launching the trailer of the film that features Nawazuddin in the role of a psycho killer, the RR 2. 0 team took the movie to the Cannes International Film Festival this year. By now, both Nawaz and the director of the film, Anurag Kashyap are considered Cannes regulars.

This year, however, something quite unexpected happened during Nawazuddin's trip to Cannes this year; filmmaker Nandita Das announced her next project with the actor.

Nandita, who is popular for films like Fire, Earth, Bawandar, and Azhagi among others announced that her next directorial has Nawazuddin Siddiui in the lead role, playing the character of famous Pakistani playwright Saadat Hasan Manto.

She also revealed that the Badlapur actor has already done costume tests for the film.

Confirming the news, Siddiqui told a leading daily:

"Yes, Nandita and I discussed this project at Cannes. I should begin shooting for it by the end of the year. It's a very interesting film because Manto was a famous writer in the 1940s-50s and I am excited to play him. It should be an interesting challenge to do a period drama. I also begin shooting for Ritesh Batra's film towards the year-end so both projects will happen simultaneously."

-- quote from Mumbai Mirror