Actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui tells Saimi Sattar how getting into the skin of the much loved and persecuted South Asian writer was a process in itself
I have been working at a stretch for the last six years and now I want a break. Else, I too will become a Manto,” says actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui with a laugh. He has just wrapped up the shooting of the much awaited biopic on Saadat Hasan Manto, the Indo-Pakistani writer, playwright and author considered to be among the greatest writers of short stories in South Asian history.
Directed by Nandita Das, the movie was shot in Gujarat and Mumbai and also stars Rasika Duggal as Safia Manto, the author’s wife. It will hit the theatres towards the end of the year.
But that is not all. From playing a writer-visionary, Siddiqui will jump into the role of Babumoshai Bandookbaaz where the 43-year-old actor will portray the role of a contract killer. In the teaser of the Kushan Nandy movie that came out in the first week of June, Siddiqui is called a drame baaz and a show baaz, who claims that he “outsources work for yamraaj!” Also to be out soon are Mom with Sridevi and Pakistani actor Adnan Siddiqui and Sabbir Khan’s Munna Michael with Tiger Shroff.
Siddiqui is known to make any character come alive so much so that the actor gets subsumed by the character that he plays. A glimpse of him as Manto in a short film called In Defence of Freedom is enough to convince one of his acting prowess and ensure that the full length movie has rocketed to the must-watch list of every movie buff. “I can’t disrobe a society which is already naked. I won’t clothe it. I use a white chalk on a black board, so that the blackness of the board becomes more prominent,” says the actor taking on the persona of the writer as he speaks.
Set in the 1940s and the 50s, a lot of work was needed to recreate the much-loved and equally reviled character, who was tried a number of times for obscenity. Says Siddiqui, “Nandita had studied Manto for five years through his work, for that is the only reference point that we have. We tried to understand what kind of a man he was through it. There are only photos and no video references. We also spoke to Manto’s daughters. Nandita created a base on all of these and that is how we created the character.” One thing Siddiqui is sure of, that Manto was a pure and honest soul who wrote what he saw.
But other things went into creating the character more believable. Siddiqui says, “There are two ways to create a character. Either you go into the physicality or you go into the thought process. For Manto, we approached the physicality first. I tried on the costume and removed all the paraphernalia associated with modern day living like phones etc and tried to go back in time.” Moreover, the director had discussed the character extensively with him.
But then Siddiqui is known to delve into any role that he plays in-depth, add his own quirks, make them more real and believable. For both Manjhi and Raman Raghav 2.0, he had to get under the skin of the character. “While Manjhi was physically challenging, Raman Raghav was a mentally exhausting character. He spoke from his brain and was a heartless man,” says Siddiqui.
And sometimes getting into the skin of the character has its perils. During the shooting of Raman Raghav 2.0, Siddiqui was hospitalised with high fever and his wife later told him that he was continuously repeating the dialogues from the scene which he had just done. “A ride in the local train, a yelling at by my wife and going out with friends are the things that help me get out of the character,” he says with a laugh.
While Siddiqui’s acting is much feted in India and abroad, especially at Cannes, where he has made repeated appearances and eight of his movies have been screened, it was not a smooth road. He had never thought he would be an actor. His work as a chemist in a petro chemical factory was far removed from the tinsel world as could be. “After working for a year, I got thoroughly bored. I got interested in the craft when my friends took me to watch plays,” he remembers. In his early 20s, he started doing small roles in Gujarati plays. On a whim, he packed his bags and went to Delhi. “I watched about 50-60 plays and then joined a theatre group called Sakshi in1991-92,” he remembers.
He studied at National School of Drama between 1993 and 1996 and was known not for his intensity but for his comic timing. In the last year of NSD, a visiting director Valentin Teplyako asked for everyone’s photos. “He asked his assistant to cover the entire face and just leave the eyes exposed and he cast me by looking at the eyes,” he says. Siddiqui played an intensive role in Ivanov by Anton Chekhov for the first time.
later, since theatre didn’t pay, he decided to make his way to Mumbai. “I did not come here to become a star I thought I would do TV serials,” he says. However, he was often rejected. “People would say that extra lights were needed for me unlike for fairer actors. While an episode with others took a day to shoot, with me it took half a day more,” he says without any hint of bitterness at the rejections. He shifted to movies and found work in some C-grade ones. The first notable movie that he made an appearance in was Sarfarosh (1999), where he played a petty criminal in one scene. He followed it up with another one scene as a waiter in the Manoj Bajpai-starrer Shool (1999). Munnabhai M.B.B.S (2003), Manorama Six Feet Under (2006), Ek Chaalis Ki last local (2006), New York (2009) were some of the movies where Siddiqui was again a one-scene wonder. But even in that one scene, he shone and the industry started to notice Siddiqui. “So they did call me — but again just for just one scene,” says Siddiqui, who got the Special Jury Award at the National Awards for Kahaani, Gangs of Wasseypur II and Talaash in 2013.
Finally in 2009-10, he auditioned for the role of Natha in Peepli live. “But the director felt that my eyes were sharp and they needed a person with dull eyes. A person, who would pass next to you and you wouldn’t even notice,” says Siddiqui who despite his success, remains really grounded. He did land the role of the reporter in the movie and finally graduated a longer role.
By this time he had spent a good 12 years in the industry. “My mother used to tell me that even the destiny of garbage would have changed during this time span,” he says. But Siddiqui did not want to go back to his village, Budhana, in Muzzafarnagar till the time he had made it big.
However, people had realised that he wasn’t a bad actor and they could risk their money on him. Pashant Bhargava, an award-winning US filmmaker, wanted to cast an actor rather than a star in Patang (2012) and chose Siddiqui. “Patang was important as it was shot among real people. Besides two-three actors, all the others were non actors,” he says. Patang released in North American theatres in June 2012 and received rave reviews, including a rare four stars from renowned US film critic Roger Ebert.
Now established, Siddiqui has taken out time to do things close to his heart. Recently, he created a video where he said that his DNA was 16.66 per cent each of Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Christian, Busshist and a 100 per cent actor. “I believe and respect each religion and we all should do that. After all, India is all about unity in diversity. Since the time I have become an adult and taken on the profession, acting is the only thing that I have done and spoken about. This is an identity,” he says emphatically.
He is also associated with an FMCG major for furthering the cause of education. “I went to a Government school in Budhana where facilities were almost non-existent. Padhai hoti nahi thi. Haan pittai bohot hoti thi (there were hardly any studies but we definitely were beaten up a lot). If we made a mistake, then there was an array of punishments that were meted out. We did not go to the school during monsoon as the school did not have a roof and in summers because the walls were missing,” he says. And he feels education is important as children are our future citizenry who can be change-makers. He intends to use the platform that he has for motivating people. “There are villages where I can go to and support and further the cause of education,” he says as he signs off.