After trying her hand at screenplay-writing, actress Sonal Sehgal has now turned producer with the Indo-Latvian film titled Manny. She also plays the lead role in the film directed by Latvian director Dace Puce.
Speaking how the film came about, she said in an official statement, “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, visited each other in our countries, bounced creative ideas off each other. We have been trying to work with each other for eight years now! And finally, I had a script that I thought was perfect for a collaboration and we instinctively went for it.”
As per information sent by the makers, Manny is a sci-fi psychological thriller that has been shot entirely in Latvia. The shooting was wrapped up in January this year. Currently, the post-production work is been carried out in the current lockdown period in India and Latvia. “While the edit and color grading is being done in Latvia, the music and sound mix is happening in India,” said a statement from the makers.
Adding about the status of the project, Sehgal said, “Well, we all had to up our online tech skills to make this collaboration work in these times where travelling to another country is banned. Surprisingly, the work has been going on seamlessly and we will soon be ready with the film.”
Sehgal bagged her first prominent role with Nagesh Kukunoor’s Aashayein (2010) where she was cast opposite John Abraham. She was then seen in Damadamm! (2011), Future To Bright Hai Ji (2012) and Mantostan (2017).
Lihaaf: The Quilt (2020) is another film Sehgal has up her sleeve where she has worked as an actor and one of the screenplay writers. The film is based on Ismat Chugtai’s short story by the same name.