He is one of those few actors in Bollywood who hates to be compartmentalised into a particular genre of films or roles. Award-winning actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui (49) believes in playing diverse roles. He steps out of his comfort zone and pushes the envelope farthest in all his movies. “While playing any character, I try to live the life of that character to the point that the character’s life and my life merge into one. If the opportunity arrives, I would like to play the character of spiritual guru Osho,” says Nawazuddin in a free-wheeling conversation on the sidelines of the 54th IFFI in Goa.
The National School of Drama (NSD) graduate who hails from Budhana, a small town in Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh firmly believes in the power of local stories and regional cinema. “You need to understand that 90% of our people live in villages in India. The heart and soul of India lie in its villages. The more you venture into local stories, the more global you go. People love to see authentic local stories on the celluloid screen, not just in India but across the world,” he asserts. Commenting on big-budget movies with unrealistic larger-than-life characters, Nawazuddin says, “There are some who make ‘other kind’ of films. But in these movies, you neither see Hindustan (India) nor the people of India. If you see movies that are appreciated outside, it is always our Indian movies with local stories.”
Reminiscing about his NSD student days, Nawazuddin says that a lot has changed. “Film festivals like IFFI help youngsters, students of cinema, and storytellers, who have interests in writing and directing,” he says. Nawazuddin has carved a niche for himself through films like Gangs of Wasseypur (2012), The Lunchbox (2013), Raman Raghav 2.0 (2016), Manto (2018), and the Sacred Games series. His acting skills have won him praise not just in India but also from international legends like Dame Judi Dench and renowned Brazilian author Paulo Coelho.
Coelho even tweeted about Sacred Games saying: “One of the best series on Netflix with the great actor Nawazuddin.” But Nawazuddin is not someone who will rest on his past laurels. “I am constantly looking for new challenging characters. I do not want to confine myself only to a certain type of character,” he says.
Books to Screen
Nawazuddin feels that stories in books written by Harishankar Parsai, Munshi Premchand, Ramdhari Singh Dinkar, Mohan Rakesh, Rahi Masoom Raza should be adapted into movies in the future.
