Nawaz of bad and good times

The first role he bagged in mainstream cinema was a 40-second appearance as a criminal in Sarfarosh; the second role was a minute and two seconds long and that of a waiter in Shool; the third was his longest stint till then — one minute and fifty seconds as a small-time thief in Munna Bhai MBBS. It’s been 15 years of relentless struggle but actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui, hailing from the nondescript village of Budhana in Muzzafarnagar district, feels he has not still arrived.  

“Actually, am not there yet. It will take me a few more decades to establish myself as an actor. At the moment, I am just getting used to the game,” he says.

There was a time when this humble actor from UP was made to stand outside production houses for hours at length and all he got in return was glares. “The managers would prod me ‘kya hai...’ and I had a standard reply for all of them: ‘dikhta nahin, actor hai!”’. To which he would get humiliated further: “‘Shakal se to lagta nahin hai’. But that did not deter this young man from pushing his limits.

“Their ridiculing me only made me more determined. I know my shortcomings, but I am not embarrassed about them. I may not have the hero look but I am an honest worker, someone who believes in originality. For the moment, it is working for me,” he says. Grit is Nawaz’s middle name. Even when he was shooed away by errant managers and clerks, he would still keep asking for a chance to perform. “When I left my village, I had only one dream. To be an actor and I was ready to wait for 500 years to be one. Giving up was never an option,” he tells you.

Cut to 2015 and Nawazuddin Siddiqui is hot property, a darling of all production houses. Everyone has a role for this versatile actor today but Nawaz says he won’t bat an eyelid in turning down offers he doesn’t believe in. “If I am not convinced about the character and that I will fit the bill, I politely refuse. My aim is not to make truck-loads of money. I don’t have robust investment plans so I am happy with whatever little I make,” he says. All his films have been an intelligent choices but Manjhi was something his heart told him to do.

“Before Ketan Mehta began telling me more about the story, he introduced the character Dasrath Manjhi as someone who had so much passion, so much love that he single-handedly struggled for 22 years to break a mountain and carve out a roadway. If he is not an inspiration, who isIJ I would have been a fool to refuse such a powerful concept,” Siddiqui tells you. Unlike other stars, he says he will not be too upset if Manjhi doesn’t set the Box Office afire. “I believed in the script. I believed in the character. Dasrath Manjhi deserved to be filmed. I am just happy to have been a part of such a brilliant film,” he says.

Nawaz has been living out of a suitcase but without any complaints. “It means I am getting the roles. Jab tak kaam mil raha, baanda market mein hai,” is his way of looking at his tight schedule. “I am being very honest with you. I would prefer to be overloaded with work rather than being free,” Nawaz, who has just returned from a promotional event, says. “Apart from Bihar, we have been to every little township talking about Manjhi. It was humbling to see the aam janata mouth dialogues from the film,” he tells you.  

It was one of the toughest roles to play because of the ironies of the character. Siddiqui’s Manjhi is a strange man — a hard taskmaster yet the funniest man in his village; a stubborn lover, an honest worker, a great friend and an amazing father all rolled into one.“When we reached his village and started meeting Dasrath’s friends and family, we got different shades of his personality from every home! It took me a few weeks just to drink in this fascinating persona,” Siddiqui, one of the greatest proponents of ‘method acting’ in Bollywood, says.

It took them 140 days to wrap up the shooting for Manjhi but Mehta and company are spending a lot of time and monies in marketing the film. “That is the need of the hour. If you do not give izzat to your own product, why will people respect itIJ,” Siddiqui asks, saying that traveling extensively to promote Manjhi has got him closer to his roots. “I have had a very humble upbringing. There was a kachcha cinema hall that we used to go to in my village, that too was in shambles. It used to take me an hour to reach that hall. Popular cinema never reached my village. I don’t know when the filmy keeda bit me but I was in awe of Dilip Kumar sahib and wanted to be what he was. The only thing that kept me going was my passion to earn more money and be like my icon,” he says.

His latest film, Bajrangi Bhaijaan was a blockbuster but Siddiqui has moved on from being the bumbling but impressive Chand Nawab. 

“I treat each and every movie as a fresh challenge. For people like me, there is no time to bask in the glory of the previous film. We have to continuously strive to better our performances. There is no room for any slip-up for actors who have no guardian angels in the industry,” the actor says, talking about self-made stars like himself and the struggles they have to go past in order to get somewhere in life.

Before Gangs of Wasseypur and Kahaani happened, Siddiqui went through an extremely lean period. A graduate of the National School of Drama, initially he felt theatre was what he was made for. “My directors were all very pleased and everything was hunky dory. Till I realised that I was completely broke. There was absolutely no money in this medium. We used to earn a paltry sum for each play and most times the payment wouldn’t be on time. It was a risky decision to make, but I had to take the next train to Mumbai. Bollywood was still a distant dream though,” he recalls.

His pit stop was at television studios and production houses. Siddiqui thought he could scale any TV test but he was met with a road block. “Those days, actors used to shoot for one episode daily and send it to the channel. But with me, the director required to invest at least one and a half days. There was need for more lighting to make me look brighter and a lot of camera angles to give me a dashing appearance. No one wanted to experiment with this face,” he recounts. The day his 5-foot something good looking friend got a call to play a beggar in a serial was the day Siddiqui decided to move to 70 mm. “Agar bhikari banunga, to badey pardey par (if I have to play a beggar, it better be for cinema),” was his reasoning.

A decade later, the actor says that was the best decision he has ever taken in his lifetime. It is the bada parda that has given him not just his rozi-roti but also a meaning to his life. It is his struggle that makes him such a great inspiration in Bollywood. “My struggle is my biggest strength. There are a lot many people who go through hardship but it depends on you how to portray it — do you want people to feel sorry for you or do you want them to have respect for your strugglesIJ,” he queries.

Getting minuscule roles was never a problem. Nawaz would shed all inhibition the moment he decided  to be an actor. “You cannot survive here if you have an ego. I have never been a casting director’s dream so I am happy if I land up with blink and disappear roles. At least I am getting to learn something by being a part of a big project,” he says. He was thrilled to be a pocketmaar in Munna Bhai MBBS. “I was supposed to loot Sunil Dutt and sprint away from there. But I was so much in awe of him that I just wanted to take retakes to be in Dutt sahib’s company,” Siddiqui recalls fondly.

He tells you that after a dozen small roles it was Anurag Kashyap that gave him a real chance in Black Friday. But the movie was banned in India and Siddiqui’s dream shattered. “That was the only time I felt dejected. But to my luck the cinema landscape was changing for the better. Cross over cinema became a fad and unconventional heroes like myself made merry,” he says. That’s how Miss lovely and Patang happened in 2009. The movies were critically acclaimed around the globe and a star was born.

“With Peepli live, New York and Kahaani, I had announced my arrival in mainstream Bollywood. But I would say it was Gangs of Wasseypur  (GoW) that got me my due. I was actor material immediately after the second chapter was released. Talaash was the icing on the cake,” the actor explains.With a few plumb roles in his kitty, Nawazuddin Siddiqui has finally managed to carve a niche for himself but the actor doesn’t want to take any credit for them. 

“I am very much a director’s actor. From Rahul Dholakia (Raees) to Ketan Mehta (Manjhi) and Anurag Kashyap (GoW), we have made good films because there was a rapport with the director and the actor. It is their faith in me which has made me a star,” he says.