Nawazuddin Siddiqui forced to quit play because of his religion
The stage was set. The 250-strong audience had taken their seats to witness a four-hour long performance of Ramleela. However, as the curtains went up, for the eighth day of the show in Muzaffarnagar’s Budhana tehsil, actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s childhood dream of starring in the play was crushed beyond repair by Hindu activists who wouldn’t let the Muslim actor star in the play, because of his religion.
Nawaz, who was to play the role of Maarich, a demon who wished to die at the hands of Lord Ram in the festivities in his hometown, posted a video of the play’s rehearsals online, saying that his childhood dream could not come true this time.
The news of the actor’s cameo spread, and local activists, allegedly from the Shiv Sena opposed his casting. Nawaz was forced to pull out of the play, citing “technical issues”.
The theatre community at large has condemned the events, taking objection to the religious discrimination Nawaz had to face. Theatre director and critic Salim Arif says, “The Ramayan and Mahabharata belong to India and are part of our common heritage. I, too, have grown up reading these stories, it is mine as much as it belongs to any other community.”
A still from the rehearsal video that Nawaz had uploaded on Twitter.
Theatre personality Alyque Padamsee asserts that an actor’s religion should not matter if he’s perfect for a role. “I’m astonished that such a decision was taken based on religion,” he says. “In theatre, we don’t discriminate on caste, gender or religion. I remember around six or seven years ago, I directed an Indianised version of Romeo and Juliet, where Romeo was a Muslim and Hindu a Juliet. Till the casting was done, I didn’t even realise that the actor playing Romeo was a Hindu and Juliet was played by a Muslim.”
Vinay Varma of Sutradhar Theatre group says that it was a benevolent move on Nawaz’ part to bow out from the play. “Religion should never come in the way of portraying any character. Nawazuddin was gracious enough to pull out to avoid any unnecessary escalation. It’s outright stupidity on the part of the protesters. The government should come down heavily on such elements. Religion even otherwise should be a person’s private affair. FYI, Danish Akhtar Saifi, obviously a Muslim, plays the role of Hanuman in the popular Hindi TV serial Siyaa ke Raam,” he says.
Director of the Dramatic Circle Hyderabad Pranav Singhal believes that such issues have no space in art and culture, he says, “Religion or political ideologies for that matter are totally irrelevant to a performance. An actor becomes a character he plays the moment he steps on to stage. One of our founding members and former minister the late Basherruddin Babukhan had given a delightful performance of a Brahmin priest in our production of the classic Mrichhakatika.
— Inputs by Priyanka Praveen, Julie Sam and Dyuti Basu
