Critically acclaimed actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui says he doesn’t care about any of the trappings of showbiz. Excerpts from an interview:
Hollywood Reporter has called you handsome and compared you with Italian actor Marcello Mastroianni?
To be called handsome by one of the most authoritative publications on American cinema, is something I value. I have never been called handsome in my own country, not by the people I know, not by critics who love my work. So it’s a great kick.
As for being compared with Marcello Mastroianni…Oh, my God! He is such a brilliant actor, so skilled and with such a riveting screen presence. When I’d see him perform in the films of (director) Vittorio de Sica, I’d wonder how that level of naturalism can be achieved in a performance.
You are getting there. Your performance in Manto is something Marcello Mastroianni would have recognised.
I’ve tried to keep my interpretation of Saadat Hasan Manto as quiet, restrained and controlled as possible. Manto never raises his voice. Yet he never has a problem getting in people to listen to him. The louder we speak the more we expose our insecurities about losing our identity. We Indians speak too loudly.
Like Marcello Mastroianni, you never have to raise your voice to be heard?
You know, I was in Rome for one-and-a-half months shooting for my friend Tannishtha Chatterjee’s film. And I visited the museum devoted to Marcello Mastroianni. Just to see all the artefacts from his films, to savour and experience his life, was a tremendous high for me. Where are the museums for our great actors like Ashok Kumar and Dev Anand?
Who are the other actors you admire?
I don’t admire actors. I admire performances. I saw this Hong Kong film In The Mood For Love. And I was blown away by Tony Leung’s performance, I thought Michael Keaton was mindblowing in Birdman. But my favourite performance is Leonardo DiCaprio’s in The Wolf of Wall Street. He played the character as wildly as possible, not bothering about pitch and rhythm. I like that sense of unpredictability in the performance.
You constantly strive for it?
I do. I don’t care about any of the trappings of showbiz. I wouldn’t say I don’t care about the money. But that comes from the big commercial films. The money I make doing Genius empowers me to do Manto which I did for free.
Do you get enough money in commercial films?
Our film industry knows your exact value and they pay you the amount you deserve. Not a penny more, not a penny less. So yes, I’d say I am paid well by mainstream cinema.
How do you choose from the dozens of offers every week?
I sit with my team over every offer. We look at my character and the set-up. The main criteria is to find areas that the characters take me into. They have to be places I haven’t visited before. I won’t repeat myself.
But the series of sociopaths’ character you played were in the same genre?
But you can’t compare the sociopath in Raman Raghav 2.0 with the one in Monsoon Shootout. They were all different, though dark characters.
You mentioned shooting with Tannishtha in Rome. How was that experience?
Very, very liberating. I was in Rome and shooting at a stretch for the film without interruptions. That’s how I want to shoot. One film at a time. There will be no overlapping. I like to surrender myself completely to my character. You will never see me using my phone on the sets. I keep away from all distractions while shooting even if it means offending someone like you who feels I’ve changed.
Tannishtha is your second female director in a row after Nandita Das. Is it any different shooting with a female director?
Now, there is a third female director Debamitra Haasan with whom I’m doing a light-hearted rom-com Motichoor Chaknachoor. It’s no different at all from shooting with male directors. Once you are in front of the camera, the gender of the director becomes irrelevant. The instructions he or she gives is all that matters.
You are being praised like no other actor in living memory. Doesn’t it make you vain?
I don’t sit and think about the praise. I just move on from one role to another looking for new challenges. I love looking for nuances in my characters.
"Our film industry knows your exact value and they pay you the amount you deserve. Not a penny more, not a penny less”
“I like being appreciated by intelligent people”
Nawazuddin Siddiqui says he prefers getting appreciation from people who are intelligent, educated and experts in the field.
On what he likes better — his films getting featured at Cannes Film Festival or his films breaking the box office, Nawazuddin said in a statement: “I prefer when my films are appreciated by intelligent, educated people who are experts in the field. That is what counts the most. These days, even rubbish films go on to becoming a massive hit because there are so many people who just go to watch it without any understanding of the craft.
“People forget what they have watched once they step out from the theatre, but the movie becomes a hit. Even if just two smart people appreciate my movies, I will be happy.”
The actor is known for his roles in films like Gangs of Wasseypur, Talaash, The Lunchbox, Manjhi - The Mountain Man, Bajrangi Bhaijaan and Mom. His latest is Manto.
National award-winning filmmaker Rajkumar Hirani, who worked with Nawazuddin in the early days of the actor’s career, says he never imagined that he would become such a prominent name in the film industry.
Recalling the time when he worked with Nawazuddin in the 2003 film Munna Bhai M.B.B.S, Hirani said: “He acted really well and I told him that ‘Nawaz, you are a very good actor’. But in my head, I never thought that Nawazuddin Siddiqui would become such a huge actor that he is today.”
In the film, Nawazuddin played a thief who pickpocketed from late actor Sunil Dutt’s character, who in turn saved him from public rage and taught him a life lesson. — IANS
PRAISE: “I never thought that Nawazuddin Siddiqui would become such a huge actor that he is today,” admits national award-winning filmmaker Rajkumar Hirani.