'Manto' release pushed until after World Cup

Sarmad Sultan Khoosat as Manto

The release of one of the year's most highly anticipated films, Manto, initially set for 2014, has been delayed.

Speaking to Dawn, director Sarmad Sultan Khoosat, who had announced via Twitter in October last year that the film will release in December 2014, said: "The post-production work resulted in the delay and we'll now release the film post World Cup."

Written by award winning playwright, Shahid Mahmood Nadeem, the film is based on the life of renowned literary figure Saadat Hasan Manto and has a stellar cast, including Sarmad himself in the lead (playing Manto), with Saba Qamar, Sania Saeed, Mahira Khan, Nimra Bucha, Nadia Afgan, classical dancer Suhaee Abro, Savera Nadeem, Yasira Rizvi, Hina Bayat, Arjumand Rahim, Faysal Qureshi, Rehan Sheikh, Shamoon Abbasi, Humayun Saeed, Irfan Khoosat, Akbar Subhani, Ali Sheikh and Adnan Jaffar, among others.

"The music is done by True Brew Records, with vocals by Meesha Shafi, Zeb, Javed Bashir and Ali Sethi," Sarmad had shared with Dawn in a previous interview. "Mohammad Hanif has also written a song for me [for the film]."

The film has also used poetry by Ghalib, Shiv Kumar Batalvi and Majeed Amjad.

No release date has yet been announced.