NAWAZUDDIN SIDDIQUI: IT TAKES A VILLAGE TO RAISE AN ACTOR

From struggling to land one-scene roles to being known as the actor behind some of Hindi cinema’s most iconic characters such as Faizal Khan and Ganesh Gaitonde, his is a story of patience and resilience. This year, with Afwaah, Jogira Sara Ra Ra and now Tiku Weds Sheru, he already has three releases and is gearing up for a few more. But for him success means better work opportunities; the celebrity tag or the star status does not impress Nawazuddin Siddiqui at all

- ANANYA GHOSH

"The more I see that [glamorous] life from close proximity, the more convinced I am that I don’t want that for myself,” Nawazuddin Siddiqui had said when we had previously met for an interview. It was for a cover of a magazine and we were doing a high-fashion shoot. He rocked the suits and looked every bit dapper. But it was when he had slipped out of the carefully curated sleek garbs and slipped back into his rather ordinary regular clothes, that I encountered the man behind the character. “Stardom doesn’t suit me. I can play the character of a star very well, though, and you would be convinced that I live that life. I am good with characters,” he had then said while affectionately rolling his cigarette.

And this should give some context to his Instagram post where he can be seen carrying a shovel in a field wearing a soiled white shirt, or his decision to spend the entire lockdown in his hometown working on his farm, which according to the actor who hails from a family of farmers, comes naturally to him. When not busy being characters, Siddiqui prefers to be his own unadulterated self.

But in the last five years, has his relationship with fame changed? Is he today a bit more comfortable with the ‘celebrity’ tag? “Neither have I got used to fame nor am I comfortable with the celebrity tag,” he says when we meet amid of a busy day of back-to-back promotional events of Prime Video’s quirky romantic comedy, Tiku Weds Sheru, his third film of 2023 after Jogira Sara Ra Ra and Afwaah.