Much to the flummoxed reactions of invitees present at the pre-release event of Manisha Koirala’s come-back film ‘Dear Maya’, eminent film-director Imtiaz Ali ( ‘Jab We Met’ and ‘Rockstar’) candidly confessed that he is ‘an ardent fan of the most beautiful actress Manisha and that he had watched all her movies, only because she was the heroine in them.’
Coming back to the ‘Dil Se’ actress who was compelled to take a long ‘sick leave’ sabbatical, until she recovered from her critical cancerous illness, now flaunts a radiant facial glow. The dedicated actress that she is, Manisha has dared to defy her charismatic good looks to play a reclusive, forlorn, middle-aged, ‘de-glam’ woman called ‘Mayadevi’.
In the movie, two girls play a nasty prank of delivering a fake ‘love-letter’ to Manisha's character Mayadevi, after which, she embarks on a frantic search to find ‘deluding love’. “One is constantly starving to grab a performance-oriented role and venture into an explored territory. But when this unconventional role offer came to me, I was hesitant and quite nervous all thru, since I had taken a long break. So I requested my talented, passionate director Sunaina Bhatnagar (a former assistant of Imtiaz) to allow me enough rehearsals with which I could regain my confidence. My character doesn’t speak much, but she conveys her emotions thru her facial expressions,” revealed Koirala whose co-star is the tall, vivacious model Shreya Singh Chaudhary.
Curiously enough, one of Manisha’s initial movies was titled ‘First Love Letter’ (1991), which was produced by Pahlaj Nihalani, now the high-profile Censor Board chief.