NEW DELHI: Actress-filmmaker Nandita Das says veteran writer-lyricist Javed Akhtar is part of her directorial 'Manto', a biopic on late writer Saadat Hasan Manto.

"My next movie is titled 'Manto'. Preparations are going on, Shabana Azmi is acting in it and it is a secret but Javed Akhtar is also part of the movie," Nandita said on the sidelines of an event by Shabana's NGO Mijwan Welfare Society.

 PC: Instagram/Nawazuddin Siddiqui

'Manto' features Nawazuddin Siddiqui as the prolific short story writer, and Rasika Dugal essays his wife.

The film will be tracing the life of Manto at the time of the India-Pakistan Partition. Currently, Nawazuddin is preparing for the film and, in fact, he has already done costume tests for the role and shared the first look of him as Manto on social media.