With Manjhi, Nawazuddin Siddiqui has proved yet again why he’s one of the finest actors of Indian cinema. In a chat with us, the actor recounts the days of his struggle — when he shared a room with 4-5 of his friends in Mumbai, the hardship and poverty that he experiences, his rise to the top — and how he isn’t star-struck by the Khans.
How does it feel to know that people now go to theatres to see how different you are in every film?
It’s a very good thing that people are now trusting me and I will have to live up to it. For me, every movie starts from scratch but the problem is getting distracted with all the appreciation. So I try to not get affected by any appreciation and keep my mind focused.
How do you do that?
I meet my old friends and they always make me feel grounded. When they start abusing me, it sorts out and helps me to get a reality check!
You stayed with 4-5 friends in one room and faced a lot of hardships during your days as a “struggler”…
Yes, it wasn’t easy and we used to stay together — Ghansham, Sonu, Raj-pal, Ashraf and a few more. Nobody was well-to-do and the rule was that whoever got work in the industry, he would lend money to the others. At times we would stay at another friend’s house, who had work, and stay there till he ran out of money.
There was a time when you had to knock on doors to ask for work. Now they knock on yours… Did you ever feel angry about not finding work?
See, earlier I used to go to them for work and now they come to me. But it doesn’t mean that I am going to take any revenge. It’s not like, ‘That time, you didn’t give me work see what I do to you now’. No. And why would they give me work? I was nobody. Mere maathe pe nahi likha tha ki ‘I am a good actor’.
Now the audience whistles and claps in the theatre, when they hear your one-liners…
[Smiles] Experi-ence makes you better person and with time, you grow in your field. The hardships that I went through have only made me a better person.
Are you influenced by your training at National School of Drama?
My training has been such that it’s your duty that you look at the person standing in front of you as a character. There was this Russian director, Valentine Kapliko, at NSD in my last year and we were doing a play. I consider him my guru. He was from Moscow Art Theatre. During rehearsals, he told me about an old incident that has shaped the way I think today. He was playing a soldier in a play and in the entire play, he had to just stand in the background feeling like a soldier. Honestly, no one was looking at him. One day while on stage, he thought no one is looking and started thinking about something else. From that day, he he left acting and shifted to direction because he didn’t live his character fully.
How did this story affect you?
As an actor, if I start thinking, ‘There is a big star in front of you’ then I am not respecting him and his character. If there is SRK (Raees), Aamir (Talaash) or Salman (Kick, Bajrangi Bhaijaan) in front me and I start looking at them as stars, then I am corrupt. You have to be honest while doing a scene. If you can’t, you should quit acting.
Have you ever been star struck?
Never.
