Mani Ratnam's wife Suhasini to make Bollywood debut with Naseeruddin Shah

Director Anu Menon has drawn extensively from personal experiences for her second Bollywood film, Waiting, which features Naseeruddin Shah and Kalki Koechlin, who are re-uniting four years after the release of the 2011-thriller, That Girl In The Yellow Boots. The two find themselves in a somewhat strange relationship with both their spouses comatose in a hospital in Kochi. The story follows the two characters through a crisis situation, the relationship unfolding with quiet humour. "I was in a similar situation with my father but the film is not a literal account. It focuses more on the shock we feel and moving on. Eventually the shock and sadness disappears and people continue to drink their coffee," says Anu who made her directorial debut with the 2012 rom-com London Paris New York, featuring Pakistani actor Ali Zafar and Aditi Rao Hyadari. The film will premiere in the Cinema of the World section on December 11 at the Dubai International Film Festival. Naseer is being honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the fest.

The film features Arjun Mathur as Kalki's husband and Rajat Kapoor in the crucial role of a doctor. But the real surprise is Suhasini, wife of Mani Ratnam who will be making her debut in Hindi cinema with this film. Suhasini who won the National Film Award for Best Actress for Tamil film, Sindhu Bhairavi in 1986 required a little bit of nudging from her filmmaker-husband to accept the film. The 54-yearold-actress has acted in over 50 films in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam.

"Suhasini was shocked when I offered her the role of Naseeruddin Shah's wife. She told me that the only time she had ever spoken in Hindi had been with a Bihari cook," reminisces Anu with a laugh, adding that Suhasini's character speaks a mix of Hindi and English with a pronounced South Indian accent. "She used to take the script home and write all the Hindi lines in Tamil, learn them by rote and come to the sets word perfect."