Nawazuddin Siddiqui was a struggler when he signed Miss lovely. He tells Karan Bhardwaj how the insignificant project brought a defining moment in his career
He is a blue-eyed boy of offbeat and small-budget movies. His liberal choices in cinema has not only made him a regular on international red carpets but also consolidated his position as a torchbearer of the new wave in Hindi cinema. Nawazuddin Siddiqui is now defined by small films with a big reach. The lunchbox and Miss lovely made it to the Festival De Cannes and his forthcoming films have already been touted as strong contenders for fresh laurels. “This journey is rather interesting. I try to discover and express myself through the characters. I am not sure… may be, it’s my choice of doing movies that has made me what I am,” says the actor.
Presently, Siddiqui is basking in international glory of Miss lovely, which is due for release across 455 screens in India. The film had competed in Un Certain Regard category at Festival De Cannes in 2012. “None of us expected it to become such a huge phenomenon. I signed it in 2009. I signed it because it was a lovely script. Aur phir kaam toh karna he tha…there was no other choice. But I am glad that it has come a long way. It had its issues with the Censor Board, which wanted 157 cuts before approving it. However, the director (Ashim Ahluwalia) battled it out fiercely and we managed to pass through with couple of small cuts,” shares the actor. He signed the film when he was struggling for work. Today the insignificant project has added another feather in his cap. “It has definitely become one of the biggest films of my career. It is like a star in my resume. Also, Miss lovely is not like any other commercial blockbuster which fades in memory after a while. The structure and narratives are strong and tougher than other films that I have done,” he says.
Though he is hopeful of the success of his film, he underlines the fact that unlike The lunchbox, which had the solid backing of UTV and Karan Johar, Miss lovely has no support to fall upon. “Neither does it have big saleable stars nor big production houses,” he says. However, he argues for big-scale promotions for small films. “People watch what is available around them. We need to inform the masses that good films are there on screens. The audience today is willing to spend money on non-star films. But promotions must be done in a bigger way,” he says.
Siddiqui says it is unfair to gauge a film’s success by the crores it earns. “Those films crossing the Rs100 crore mark are made on big budgets. But if a movie is made on a shoestring budget of Rs1 crore and garners Rs10 crore at box office, it is a blockbuster,” he says.
Having said that, he doesn’t want to be stereotyped for small movies. That’s perhaps the reason why his films are different from each other. “I want to break that image by doing variety of characters. In my forthcoming films, none of my character is similar. I am doing all the lead roles. And I believe every film is a commercial movie today,” he says.
He has about six releases this year. They include Mountain Man by Ketan Mehta, Dhumketu of Phantom Pictures, Haramkhor by Shlok Sharma, national award-winning Dekh Indian Circus, Anwar Ka Ajab Kissa by Buddhadeb Dasgupta and Monsoon Shootout by Anurag Kashyap. So the struggle is finally overIJ “I am confused. Mujhe khud nahi pata…” he concludes.