Manisha to play hooker in next

Actor Manisha Koirala is back to the fore. She is getting ready to don the role of an ageing prostitute in Deepti Naval’s directorial debut Do Paise Ki Dhoop Charane Ki Baarish.

Actor Manisha Koirala is back to the fore. She is getting ready to don the role of an ageing prostitute in Deepti Naval’s directorial debut Do Paise Ki Dhoop Charane Ki Baarish. Manisha, who has shifted base to Nepal where she is married to businessman Samrat Dahal, admits that the part was mentally draining, “I shot for both, I Am and Deepti’s film, after I got married. Both were challenging roles and demanded a lot from me as an actor. To be able to get out of the newly-wed mode to essay these characters was unnerving but satisfying.” The actor plays a Kashmiri Muslim in I Am, who is abandoned by her Hindu friend.

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In Deepti’s film, Manisha had to dig deep for inspiration. “I play an ageing prostitute whose son (played by Deepti’s nephew) is born with a handicap.” The actor who has played a prostitute before, in the 2003 film Market, insists this role is “different” as she plays an out-of-work escort. However, the actor denies meeting any real-life prostitutes. “Deepti had already done a lot of research for the character and I am going by her brief,” she says.

Thirty-two years after having acted in various films, Deepti has been working on this project for more than a year. The male lead is an old-school lyricist (played by Rajit Kapoor) who refuses to write an item song.

Manisha says that her character, along with Rajit’s, faces the harsh reality of being “outcasts in modern times.” She adds, “These people have struggled a lot in their lives because they are misfits in society. It’s a movie about relationships, where they both become a support-system to one another.”