Actress Rasika Dugal, whose look for “Manto” resembles the real life Safia Manto, is glad the effort has been “worth it” in capturing the character’s simplicity.

Being directed by Nandita Das, “Manto” is a biographical film based on the Pakistani writer. Apart from emphasising on Manto and his writings, it will also reflect on his personal life in which his wife Safia played a strong role.

Rasika plays Safia, and for this, she sports an extremely simple, no make-up, bespectacled look with her hair neatly tied in a plait.

Talking about it, the actress told IANS: “Getting Safia Manto’s look right is important for the film. Even though there hasn’t been much written about her, fortunately there were many photographs which was a big help.

“Nandita and her assistants had put some photographs of me and of Safia Manto side by side for the initial look tests, and I was thrilled to see that there was an inherent resemblance in the face structure, the nose and the smile. So, that was a great start.”

Whether it was in the film “Qissa” or the TV show “P.O.W.- Bandi Yuddh Ke” — Rasika has mostly taken on deglamourised roles in her projects. She is thankful to the behind-the-scenes team for putting together an authentic look for her in “Manto”.

“Sheetal Sharma (costume designer) and his team have taken it to another level with the authentic costumes and those glasses. And Srikant (make-up) and his team tried different things with hair and make-up (actually no make-up) to get to a look which was authentic and in keeping with the beautiful simplicity of Safia Manto.

“Sometimes it takes longer to create a look that is simple. It took three full working days, but it was well worth it,” added Rasika, who is busy taking Urdu lessons these days.

Earlier, actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s look as Manto had come out, and the resemblance was there for all to see.