Following in the footsteps of Deepika Padukone, Anushka Sharma and Priyanka Chopra, the Aashayein actress Sonal Sehgal turns producer with her next, an Indo-Latvian feature, MANNY. Sonal plays the lead role in the film directed by Latvian director, Dace Puce.
Sonal, who made her acting debut opposite John Abraham in Nagesh Kukunoor’s, Aashayein will be next seen in a feature, Lihaaf, based on Ismat Chughtai's controversial short story. She has co-written the screenplay of Lihaaf, which is co-produced by Oscar-winning producer Marc Baschet (No Man’s Land, Lunchbox).
Talking about MANNY, Sonal says, “Dace and I studied together in Film School in New York. There are some people you completely creatively connect with and Dace was one of them. Over the years, we kept in touch and bounced creative ideas off each other and finally, I had a script that I thought was perfect for a collaboration".
The film, which is a sci-fi psychological thriller, has been entirely shot in Latvia in January this year. Since then, the team has been working online during the ongoing pandemic to finish the postproduction. While the edit and colour grading are being done in Latvia, the music and sound mix is happening in India. “Surprisingly, the work has been going on seamlessly and we will soon be ready with the film,” adds Sonal.
Sonal has worn many hats in her stint in the industry. She started out as a copywriter, assisted director Pradeep Sarkar, directed a short film, Dancing In The Dark which is about the racism perpetrated by fairness creams, acted in TV and films, co-wrote the screenplay of Lihaaf, authored a book The Day That Nothing Happened.